


spotted, but not seen

by sweetchaostree



Series: miraculous ladybug AU [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Miraculous Ladybug Fusion, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Elements of Chatfic, Fashion Designer Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, M/M, Model Suh Youngho | Johnny, Photographer Suh Youngho | Johnny, SM please let Ten design NCT's merch, YouTuber Suh Youngho | Johnny, basically ten is ladybug and johnny is chat noir, johnny runs a youtube channel and Johnny's Fashion Evaluation is a thing, kind of plot-heavy but theres also some meaningless banter in here, the teen rating is for cursing and other high schooler shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:39:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28011765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetchaostree/pseuds/sweetchaostree
Summary: In the daytime, he's just Ten— a normal guy with a normal life, a dancer and aspiring fashion designer. But when Paris is in danger, he transforms into the superhero Ladybug, defending the city alongside his partner Chat Noir.It's been almost three years of fighting akumas already, and Ten is starting to get tired. How much longer will they have to do this? What do his superhero duties mean for his future, for college applications and job prospects? And will he ever find the guts to ask Johnny out on a date?(Or: a Miraculous Ladybug AU, in which Ten struggles to balance senior year, his social life, and secret superhero-ing.)
Relationships: (dotae is side though), Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong
Series: miraculous ladybug AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051706
Comments: 31
Kudos: 52





	1. the cartooninator

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time posting a fanfic other than like one short thing I wrote in middle school, so I'd love to hear what people think! am definitely open to any feedback/criticisms, also this isn't beta read so feel free to point out any mistakes. I just felt like I had to write this since I couldn't get the idea out of my head haha. updates might be slow though since I haven't planned much out, but I'll definitely finish it at some point. (also, I don't know why I suddenly felt like I had to write this right before finals week...)
> 
> also, I tried to write it so that it would still mostly make sense for people who don't know the premise of Miraculous Ladybug? Let me know if anything is confusing though since I didn't wanna like shove an info dump into the story. but some notes about this AU, for people who are unfamiliar with ML (you can skip most of this if you know how ML works):
> 
> \- they're seniors in high school right now, and the akuma attacks started their freshman year, so they've been doing this for three years by now.  
> \- johntendotae have been friends since freshman year, though johndo and taeten have been friends for longer. so they're all very familiar/comfortable with each other, and ten doesn't want to lose johnny's friendship.  
> \- ladybug and chat noir are unaware of each other's civilian identities, for safety reasons.  
> \- ten is ladybug and johnny is chat noir. chat noir is in love with ladybug, and constantly flirts with him, but ladybug always rejects him because ten is in love with johnny. most of the show rests on this dramatic irony.  
> \- also, ladybug doesn't actually think chat noir is seriously in love with him, he just thinks chat is a flirt. after three years of it, it's kind of more like a jokey banter between them, even though chat still loves ladybug quietly. but either way, they are partners and very good friends.  
> \- johnny is the son of a famous fashion designer and has been modeling for his father for a long time. his mother died/disappeared mysteriously shortly before his freshman year.  
> \- ladybug and chat noir get their powers from magical pieces of jewelry called Miraculouses. ladybug's are a pair of earrings and chat's is a ring.  
> \- their Miraculouses are powered by kwami, who are these cute little magic creatures that are connected to their Miraculouses. They're around 10 cm tall, and can talk, fly, and phase through solid objects. Also, they can't be captured on video.  
> \- the ladybug miraculous represents powers of creation and good luck, whereas the black cat represents powers of destruction and bad luck.  
> \- ladybug's Lucky Charm power essentially creates an object that just happens to be exactly what they need to win, as long as they can figure out how to use it. Usually, this involves some very convoluted plan, and it's not obvious at first glance what the Lucky Charm is supposed to be used for.  
> \- chat noir's Cataclysm power will destroy whatever he touches with his hand after he has activated the power.  
> \- After each battle, ladybug can throw the Lucky Charm into the air and yell "Miraculous Ladybug!", which makes the Lucky Charm disappear and also reverses all the damage that occurred during the battle. Therefore, there usually isn't any permanent damage done after the battle is over except psychological damage on the victims.  
> \- After a superhero uses their main power, they only have five minutes left before their suit will run out of power and they have to detransform. To recharge, they have to feed their kwami. Different kwamis prefer different foods.  
> \- the main villain is Hawkmoth, who has the power to akumatize people: what this means is that he can prey on people's negative emotions, and turn them into a supervillain. To do this, he uses an akuma, which is a butterfly that he has infused with his powers, and sends the akuma to infect an object that is of some emotional significance to the victim. To defeat the akumatized people, Ladybug and Chat Noir must break the akumatized object to release the akuma, so that Ladybug can use her yoyo to purify it back into a normal butterfly.  
> \- Hawkmoth does this to try and steal Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses, because if someone gains the powers of creation and destruction, they can be granted a single reality-changing wish.
> 
> sorry if this is a lot! if you have any other questions feel free to ask!
> 
> also, I know Ten is NCT's ultimate catboy, and I really wanted to make him Chat but I think personality-wise and interests-wise he and Johnny fit better as Ladybug and Chat Noir. however, I might write a kwami swap at some point!
> 
> anyways I hope you guys enjoy!

_First day of school._ Ten thought, pausing a moment to take in the face of the building.

Well, the last first day of school he'd have here. It felt strange to be a senior— the title put a weight on his shoulders, like a heavy cloak, which, while not unpleasant, felt a little bit suffocating.

"Well, Tikki, this is it." Ten murmured quietly into the hood of his jacket, where Tikki was hidden. "I'm officially a senior now. God, I'm old now."

"Don't worry, Ten, you'll be fine!" reassured the red blob from where she was snuggled up inside his hood. "I'm thousands of years old and you don't hear me complaining about it. You're still young! You have plenty of time to make your dreams a reality!" 

Ten smiled. "Thanks, Tikki."

He was a bit early, and when he entered his classroom, he saw that only a few other people were there. Taeyong and Doyoung had already arrived, with Doyoung sitting in the first row and Taeyong in the seat directly behind him. Ten fought the urge to roll his eyes a little. Of course Doyoung would be here bright and early to snag a front row seat. The two of them were bickering over something or other, as they always were, but they looked up as he made his way to claim the seat next to Taeyong.

"Ten!" Taeyong exclaimed, standing up to give him a tight hug. "I haven't seen you in so long!"

Ten laughed as he returned the hug. "It's good to get back to seeing you on a regular basis too, even if it has to be through school."

"You two literally video call all the time." Doyoung interjected.

Ten stuck his tongue out at Doyoung. "Guess I'm just his favorite best friend."

Doyoung was about to say something back before Taeyong interrupted. "It's not that! It's just that Doyoung and I hung out a lot over the summer, but Ten was always busy with his fancy fashion internship!"

Ten laughed. "It's not that fancy, Taeyong, but whatever. Besides, Doyoung, don't act like you didn't miss me too!" 

Doyoung scoffed. "You? Never. Taeyong and I managed just fine with you. It would've been nice to see Johnny, though."

"Oh yeah, why isn't he here yet?" Taeyong asked, craning his neck to look through the doorway. "He's usually here by now. I haven't seen him in a while either!"

"Speak of the devil," quipped Ten as he spotted Johnny approaching from down the hallway. "Johnny!"

"Hey!" Johnny waved, breaking into a big smile as he jogged over and dumped his bag on the seat next to Doyoung.

Ten hadn't seen Johnny in person all summer, although they had video called several times. Both of them had been busy: Ten with his competitive fashion design internship and secret superhero-ing, and Johnny with his photography internship and modeling gigs. Finding times where the both of them were available and not dead tired had been difficult, and Ten was glad that he was back to seeing Johnny five days a week again.

Johnny laughed as Taeyong attacked him with a hug. "Hi, Taeyong, nice to see you too. Yes, I'm doing great, thanks for asking." He then turned to Ten, opening his arms for a hug.

Ten shuffled over and wrapped his arms around Johnny for a quick hug. In his opinion, Johnny gave the best hugs, but perhaps he was biased. 

He pulled back and looked Johnny over. "You asshole, did you get taller?"

Johnny chuckled sheepishly. "I don't know? I didn't check?"

Doyoung stood up to eye Johnny for a moment, then gave him a quick hug. "I think you did," he concluded as he sat back down.

"Ugh, I can't stand you." Ten huffed, plopping back down in his seat. Still, hearing Johnny's warm laughter for the first time in months, it was hard for him to keep pretending to be annoyed. Seeing that smile in real life was ten times brighter than seeing it plastered on billboards all across Paris.

"So, guys. How are you all feeling about senior year?"

Taeyong groaned, head thunking onto his desk. "Don't even get me started."

* * *

Ten was in the bathroom during lunch when the akuma alarm rang. He groaned as he fished his phone out of his pocket to silence the blaring alert.

"Seriously? On the first day of school?"

Tikki shrugged as she phased out of his backpack. "You know Hawkmoth waits for no one!"

"Yeah, yeah. Well, at least I don't have to come up with some ridiculous reason to slip away right now." He took a deep breath. "Okay. Tikki, spots on!"

Now clad in magical red spandex with black spots, he shimmied open the bathroom window, aimed his yoyo at the nearest chimney, and swung his way up onto the rooftops.

Seconds later, he was joined by a blur of black spandex and cat ears— his partner, Chat Noir.

"Hello, my darling bugaboo," he drawled. "How are you on this fine morning?" 

Ten laughed, shaking his head at Chat's antics. "It was going to be a nice day until the akuma came. Come on, let's wrap this up fast! I was in the middle of lunch and I want to finish it before my food gets cold." He aimed his yoyo in the direction of the rampaging akuma and took off, not sparing a glance behind him. He knew Chat would be following him.

Chat laughed. "Your wish is my command," he said with a wink, vaulting himself so that he was running parallel to her on the rooftops. They were starting to approach the circle of destruction and could see the culprit standing in the middle of it all, hands on her hips as she waited for their approach.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir! Give me your Miraculous!"

The two of them ducked behind a chimney to hide for a moment and assess the situation. "Any idea what happened so far?" Ten asked.

Chat shook his head. "Nope. Hold on, I'm checking the news broadcast to see if they've said anything."

Ten nodded and turned to survey the wreckage. Something seemed off about it, but he wasn't sure what. Smoking heaps of cars were all piled up on top of each other, and many of the buildings had chunks taken out of them from explosions. Some of them looked like they shouldn't even be standing—

"News broadcasts haven't totally figured it out, but they said it's making things behave weirdly. And people, too. Check out this clip of people running away from the akuma after being hit." Chat turned his baton screen around to show Ten a video of people running, but it looked like their legs were strangely blurred, like they were moving so fast that their legs appeared in multiple places at the same time.

Ten squinted at the video. "Huh. That is... so weird. What even is that?"

Chat shrugged. "Beats me." He flipped the cover closed so that it went back to being a regular baton again.

"Hellooooo! I know you're out there somewhere!" The girl stomped her foot and fired up something from her arm, which hit a nearby building. The resulting shrapnel was blown hundreds of feet in the air, and the nearby pile of cars jumped a few feet off the ground from the impact.

Chat whistled. "Shit. That's powerful. I really don't wanna get hit by that." He stood up, stretching his arms over his head in preparation. "Well, bugaboo, what do you think? Usual plan?"

Ten nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. Be careful, though. Those blasts look nasty."

Chat nodded, giving a smirk and a salute before vaulting himself into the air and bringing his baton down to attack the akumatized girl.

Ten moved out of hiding and swung around the perimeter of the area, trying to swing close enough to catch a glimpse of something that might be the akumatized object. After almost three years of fighting akuma together, he and Chat Noir had developed a fairly effective system for dealing with unknown threats. Chat was good at distracting the akuma, through a combination of his fighting skills and quips, while Ten was better at hanging back and analyzing the situation.

"So, what's got you all worked up today, hm?" Chat asked from his perch up on another rooftop.

"GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS!"

"Come on, man, that's not very nice. You could've just told me you didn't want to talk." He said as he went in for another strike. The girl counterattacked with a blast that forced Chat to duck out of the way. 

"Hah! You won't be able to sneak up on the Cartooninator that easily!"

"Cartooninator, huh? Interesting name you got there. Mind telling me where it came from?"

The Cartooninator opened her mouth to answer, but stopped as she seemed to notice something.

Ten followed the Cartooninator's line of sight and swore under his breath when he saw the person hiding behind the rubble. Donghyuck, runner of the Ladyblog, was crouched behind a hunk of concrete with his phone out— no doubt to record footage of the fight so he could post on the Ladyblog later. Chat seemed to have noticed too, because he started yelling to distract the Cartooninator from the civilian. "Hey! Eyes over here!" he called, as the Cartooninator prepared to launch a blast at Donghyuck. Chat swung his baton to land a direct hit on her head, forcing her to stumble and misdirect her aim to hit another building. At the same time, Ten swung in with his yoyo to grab the pesky civilian and pull him to safety.

"That was awesome!" Donghyuck exclaimed the moment Ten set him down.

"No! It was not awesome! You—" Ten paused a moment to wonder if he was allowed to swear in front of freshmen. "You freaking idiot! You could've gotten seriously hurt! How many times do I need to tell you to stay away from the akuma attacks!"

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Jeez, you're like my mom. You already know I'm not going to stop, so you might as well just skip the lecture."

There was a crunch of footsteps on broken glass, and Ten turned to see Jeno, one of Donghyuck's friends, jogging up to them. "Come on, Hyuck, let's go!" he called. "You've gotten enough footage for today, c'mon."

Ten sighed and offered Jeno a half smile before turning back to Donghyuck. "Well, now that your responsible half is here, I can finally go back to the fight. Bug out!"

Ten swung his way back to where the fight was taking place. While Chat looked like he was doing a decent job battling the akuma, Ten was sure that he was getting tired. But as he swung closer, he realized something seemed... off about Chat's movements.

First of all, he was battling her from the ground. Although this wasn't totally unusual, he didn't seem to be jumping up to attack her from above or to be using his baton to vault himself places. His movement seemed slower, too— not molasses slow, but regular person speed instead of the superhuman speed they usually moved with. His normally brown hair was now black with soot. Without superspeed, he was clearly on the defensive, using the baton to block the Cartooninator's attacks and attempts to grab his ring.

Ten swung in and wrapped his yoyo around the Cartooninator's arm just as she was about to make another grab for Chat's hand. Chat looked up with a relieved grin. "Nice save, LB!" He darted backwards, and Ten let go of the Cartooninator's arm so he could grab Chat and swing the both of them up onto the nearest rooftop.

"Any more info on her powers? Also, what happened to you?" Ten asked worriedly.

Chat smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I got hit by one of her blasts. Knocked me back a bunch and blew up a ton of shit around me, but the blast didn't actually hurt at all? I feel totally fine. I got hit by a lot of the shrapnel that blew up, but my suit protected me from most of it." He paused, thinking. "Also, nothing caught on fire but somehow I have a ton of soot in my hair?"

Ten brushed his fingers through Chat's hair (which, wow, was very soft), rubbing some of the soot between his fingers. "Huh. I mean, it looks like real soot to me."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with that. But I think I kinda figured out what her powers are— it has something to do with manipulating physics, I think. And it kind of overrode my magical suit physics, which is why I can't jump super high anymore. And also, with all those dramatic explosions? Did you notice that each time something explodes, all of the cars that get thrown into the air somehow land in a stack on top of each other?"

Ten paused. "Wait, what? No, I didn't notice that. That is so weird."

"Also, I think I might know where the akuma is? I think it's in her sweatshirt, since she called herself the Cartooninator and the shirt has some cartoon characters on it. But I have no idea what that has to do with the physics manipulation thing."

"Oh! I've got it!" Ten grinned. "Cartoon physics!"

Chat frowned. "What's that?"

"Don't worry about it." Ten dismissed. "We don't have time. Lucky Charm!" he called, throwing his yoyo up to cast the magic power. In his arms landed a large, polka-dotted trampoline. 

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

* * *

After they'd successfully carried out Ten's plan (which involved the trampoline, a movie poster from the theater across the street, a pair of scissors, and Chat running off of rooftops with his eyes closed so he wouldn't fall) and comforted the akumatized victim (a freshman who had been bullied about liking the cartoon on her sweater), the two of them finally stopped to catch a breath on another rooftop.

"Well," Chat finally said. "I think your lunch break is probably over by now. Sorry, LB."

Chat looked genuinely apologetic about it. Ten shook his head and rolled his eyes with a smile. "It's fine, you stupid cat. Don't worry about it. My teacher will probably let me eat in class."

Chat hummed. "Well, that's good." He said, cracking a grin. "Wouldn't want you to starve. What would Paris do without its stunning, intelligent, charismatic Ladybug?" 

Ten laughed. "Shut up, you flirt." A warning beep from his earrings alerted him that his transformation was about to time out. "Well, I gotta get going soon. Pound it?" He asked, offering his fist for a fist bump.

"Pound it!" Chat replied, knocking his knuckles gently against Ten's. "Until we meet again, my favorite bugaboy."

Ten laughed, the endearment familiar to him by now. "See you around, kittycat. Bug out!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, jeno being the one to pull hyuck away from the battles was 100% inspired by that twitter blueroom live where jeno kept pulling haechan back offscreen after he kept walking into the other unit's live lmao. also, the dreamies voted on who should have the responsibility of making sure haechan doesn't die and they voted for jeno because he is the most athletic and therefore the most likely to be able to chase after donghyuck, could potentially pry rubble off of him if he ever got trapped, and the most able to forcibly drag him away when it really gets too dangerous.


	2. third year's the charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir celebrate their third anniversary of superhero-ing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! some other notes about this AU, for those of you who are familiar with ML and want to know how this relates to the ML canon:
> 
> \- this takes place post season 3: so master fu is gone, ladybug is currently the guardian, and the peacock miraculous has been repaired. therefore, mayura still makes an appearance sometimes since she no longer gets sick from using the miraculous  
> \- I know it's said that once you are an adult there is no more timer on the miraculouses?? and johnny is 18 in this fic, but I think it'd be weird if the moment you turn 18 you suddenly don't need to detransform anymore lmao. also, these are magical objects thousands of years old and I don't think they follow whatever humans decided was "legal adult age". so I'm making it more of a gradual thing, like as you get older you can sustain your transformation longer. So as of right now, Johnny can use Cataclysm twice before his timer starts to beep. Ten can still only use Lucky Charm once, but that will probably change soon. It depends on how the miraculouses think of people as being "grown up", I guess.
> 
> anyways, that's all for today! I hope you guys enjoy!

There had been no akuma activity for the past two days, giving Ten a much-needed breather that allowed him to settle back into the routine of school. Between classes, homework, and freaking out about his portfolio, he was already busy enough without the added stress of superhero-ing.

He exited out of a design he was working on with a sigh, stretching his arms out as he glanced at the clock. It was almost 10:30, which was when he had agreed to meet Chat to "celebrate" their third anniversary of superhero-ing. The two of them didn't hang out much outside of akuma attacks— they were both too busy, and didn't want to invite more opportunities for someone to take their miraculouses while transformed. Ten was also worried that if they hung out too much, they would inevitably reveal too much information about themselves that would compromise their secret identities. It was better for both of them to distance themselves, to not get too close or emotionally attached in case it interfered with their superhero duties.

Despite all this, Ten considered Chat one of his best friends— how could he not, after three years of partnership, of trusting each other in life-or-death situations? They knew each other so well, communicating with shared glances during battles and moving in tandem to take down targets. Chat understood him in a way none of his friends in civilian life did; only Chat really knew the Ladybug side of him. Getting to hang out with Chat when they weren't trying to save Paris was an indulgence reserved for special occasions, like today.

Chat was already waiting for him when Ten swung his way up onto the rooftop, a large grin stretched across his face.

"Late to our anniversary celebration?! I'm breaking up with you, LB! It's over. My heart is broken." He exclaimed dramatically.

Ten snorted at his antics. "Good riddance. Knew I should never trust a guy in a kinky leather catsuit."

Chat clutched his heart dramatically. "Oh, adding insult to injury! You're so cruel to me, bugaboo." He held the pose for a moment, before releasing it with a laugh. "Anyways, I brought wine. This time it's, uh..." He turned the bottle to read the label. "Bourgogne Pinot Noir Grand Cru."

Ten laughed. "Fancy. Did you actually buy it this time, or did you steal from your dad's wine stores again?"

"Depends on if you're into the good, upstanding citizen or the rebellious teenager type." He said with a wink. 

Ten shoved his laughing face away with an eyeroll and a fond smile. "Just pour me a glass already." He said, plopping down onto the picnic blanket that Chat had already spread out underneath them.

The two of them were on top of one of their favorite rooftops in Paris, high above the city. The early September weather carried a light breeze, and Paris was lit up bright and glowing in front of them. Up here, the air felt clearer somehow, even though Ten was sure it was just as polluted as down below. Up here, they were far from prying eyes— no one except them could get to this rooftop, unless someone managed to either gain superpowers or climb the side of the building.

Ten loved being Ladybug, and he was no stranger to attention, both in and out of the suit. As Ladybug, he constantly dealt with camera flashes and microphones shoved in his face, with the wide, thankful eyes of civilians as he whisked them away from danger. As Ten, he was used to the spotlight on stage as he danced, his emotions laid bare for an audience to see. But up here, with only the city lights illuminating their small picnic and no bright lights to put him on display, he felt like he'd been set free of expectations. In the darkness, the pressure slid off his shoulders like silk until it was just Ten, sitting on a picnic blanket, watching the city instead of feeling like the whole city was watching him.

"Well, wonderbug," said Chat as he sat down next to Ten. "Here's to three years of saving Paris." He held up his wine glass, and Ten laughed, playfully clinking his own glass against Chat's.

"More like three years of constantly pulling excuses out of my ass. I can't believe no one has called me out on my bullshit yet."

Chat threw his head back and laughed. "Same here! Whenever there's an akuma attack I just say some shit like 'Gotta call my father and let him know where I am!', or 'Oh no! Guess we'd better split up so we can hide better!' Really, I don't know how no one has noticed." He paused to take a sip of his wine. "Honestly, though. I feel like someone's going to connect the dots at some point. I don't know how long we can keep doing this for."

Ten sighed and hummed his agreement. Feeling colder all of a sudden despite the warmth from the wine, he shuffled closer so that his shoulder was pressed up against Chat's. 

"Yeah. It's been three years, and honestly? I'm kind of tired of it. I feel like I never have enough free time anymore, and I'm always exhausted from fighting akuma, and there's just no end in sight."

These days, Ten felt tired more often than not, and he constantly had to decline plans with friends in order to catch up on homework. Taeyong had started to notice, too, constantly asking Ten if he was okay and if there was anything he could do to help. Ten felt horrible about lying to Taeyong, making excuses about how he was just stressed about his portfolio (which was true, so it wasn't a total lie), but it was awful not being able to tell anyone the real reason he was so stressed all the time.

"I mean, it's been three years and we still have no idea who Hawkmoth is, or what he wants the miraculouses for." Ten continued, the words getting faster as they spilled out of his mouth. "And most of these akuma attacks are pretty routine, and we can handle them, but each time there's always a risk we won't make it. And I just feel like Hawkmoth is wearing us down, both physically and psychologically, since we're both so tired all the time and I'm always so stressed thinking about when the next akuma is going to attack, since these things are just so unpredictable and we just have to be on constant guard!" He exclaimed. "But I know I can't let myself get stressed out because then he could akumatize me! And sometimes, he'll make an akuma that's stronger than normal, or he'll get Mayura to send an amok, and then we'll have to get someone to help us. But one more miraculous out of the box is another one that he could potentially take. And sometimes he'll plan something big and awful and each time we get out of those I just think about how close it was, and how we might not make it the next time, and it's been a few months since the last one of those big attacks so I feel like we're due for another one soon and I just," he paused to take a deep breath, "I don't know how many of these attacks we can take. What happens when our luck runs out?"

Chat was quiet for a moment, processing the onslaught of words. He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm just optimistic, and have faith that we'll keep making it."

Ten blinked to try and clear his eyes of the tears starting to form. The city lights looked like glowing blobs in front of him.

"That's not helpful, you stupid cat." He choked out.

Chat offered a half smile. "I know. I'm worried too. But I mean, I think things have gotten a little better. People have been better about being nice, making sure their friends are okay, stuff like that. So akumatizations haven't been as frequent." He shrugged. "Kinda depressing that it took the threat of a supervillain for people to be nicer to each other, but I like to focus on the good things. Or should I say... the paw-sitives?" He asked with a cheeky grin.

Ten let out a watery laugh.

"But you're right," Chat continued. "We can't keep doing this forever. And I've been thinking—" He paused to let out a sigh. "I've been thinking about the future a lot, lately. College. And, honestly, I really want to get the hell out of Paris." He admitted. "Go somewhere far away, like New York City or something."

"You could." Ten said quietly. He'd always had the feeling that Chat was meant for bigger and better, over-the-top and larger than life. He'd fit in New York City, Ten thought, with the skyscrapers and neon lights and dreams fighting to come true.

Chat shook his head. "I could never leave you, bugaboo. Not while you and the rest of Paris still need me here as Chat Noir."

Ten turned to look at him, traced out his profile barely illuminated by the city lights. Wondered what kind of man he was under the magic of the mask, what kind of dreams he wanted to chase all the way to New York.

Ten drew in a deep breath. "Well, I'm glad you're still here. I think I'd go insane if I had to do it without you." He laughed quietly. "It's a funny coincidence, actually— I was looking at colleges in New York too."

Chat hummed. "Yeah? For what major? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

Ten mulled it over for a second, wondering if telling Chat his intended major would make him too identifiable. How many male, Asian aspiring fashion designers were there in Paris? Then again, Paris was one of the major fashion cities in the world; there must be plenty of aspiring fashion designers here.

"Design." He settled on eventually. "And maybe art, or something."

Chat smiled softly, turning to look at Ten. "I can see that. Your face is a work of art."

Ten snorted a laugh. "That was awful."

"Made you laugh, though."

Ten smiled. "Yeah, I guess it did." He swirled the wine in his glass idly. "What about you? What major, I mean."

Chat flopped backwards onto the blanket with a groan, nearly hitting his head on the bottle of wine. "I don't know. Probably photography? And business or marketing or something like that."

Ten nodded. "I have a friend who's really into photography, actually. If you guys ever met, I think you'd be friends." He could see it— Johnny playing along with whatever ridiculous bullshit Chat said, the two of them nerding out over cameras or whatever it was photographers did, Chat guesting on Johnny's Fashion Evaluation and breaking YouTube.

"After all this is over, maybe." Chat murmured thoughtfully.

"After all this is over," agreed Ten.

But now, a little tipsy from the wine, Ten let his imagination run wild, to think about things he usually didn't let himself think about— Chat with the rest of his friends, goofing off together. Taeyong and Doyoung nagging at Chat to be less reckless, less self-sacrificing. Chat going to the bakery with them when they all studied together, buying pastries to satisfy his massive sweet tooth and sprawling his limbs across the cute little bakery chairs. He wanted his best friend to meet his other best friends, and he felt angry, all of a sudden, that he couldn't have this— that he had to hide half of his life from his civilian friends and hide the other half from his partner. That he and Chat couldn't leave Paris, couldn't live out their dreams, because of a stupid supervillain trying to make everyone's lives miserable.

"You know what?" Ten turned to face Chat, who was still lying spread-eagled on the blanket and staring up at nothing. "Fuck this! Fuck Hawkmoth, seriously. We've been on the defense for the past three years and we're no closer to figuring out who he is than when we started. It's time we started being more proactive."

Chat raised himself up on one elbow to look at Ten drowsily. "What?"

Ten reached over to smack him on the shoulder. "Wake up, you alley cat. I've had enough of this bullshit. I don't want both of us to have to give up our dreams and our futures because of some supervillain who's too much of a coward to show his fucking face. We need to come up with some sort of plan to lure him out, get him to reveal more of himself. Otherwise, we're never going to get anywhere, we'll just be fighting akumas for the rest of our lives! So here's what's gonna happen," he declared. "The two of us are going to come up with a plan to finally end this once and for all, and then we are going to celebrate and you can finally meet all my friends, and then we're both going to go to college in New York and have the time of our fucking lives." He finished determinedly.

Chat grinned at him. "Sounds like a plan, LB. Where do we start?"

* * *

The next day at school, Ten was distracted and fidgety, but strangely, he felt more energetic than he'd had in a while. Even though they had no idea how to defeat Hawkmoth yet, just the thought of finally taking action had him feeling energized and a little frantic, thoughts racing all over the place. He spent the whole morning doodling idly in his notebook, mind elsewhere as he wondered what they could possibly do to lure Hawkmoth out into the open.

On the way to lunch, Taeyong grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

"Are you okay? You've been acting weird all morning."

Ten smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, I'm fine! Feeling a little keyed up for some reason, but I swear I'm okay."

"You sure?" Taeyong asked. "You've just been so tired and stressed recently, it's weird to see you like this."

"I'm sure, Taeyong." Ten confirmed. Although he was still feeling pressure from the looming college application deadlines and the constant threat of akuma attacks, talking to Chat the night before had been cathartic in a way that made him feel less like tearing his hair out. He was infinitely thankful that he had a partner to share the burden of superhero-ing with. "Now come on, let's go to lunch!"

The rest of the school day passed more or less normally, and by the end of the school day, Ten had settled down a bit, relaxing into the routine of a school day uninterrupted by akuma attacks.

"Do you guys wanna come over to my place to study today?" Ten asked as they were packing up.

"Oh, it's been a while since we did that!" Taeyong exclaimed. "Ah, but Doyoung and I can't go today, since we were gonna see that new zombie movie and we already got tickets. Next Friday, though?"

"Sure!" Ten replied. "What about you, Johnny?"

Johnny thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think I could come over for a little while. Let me just text Nathalie to make sure it's okay and let my bodyguard know."

Nathalie was Johnny's father's personal assistant, who was in charge of both of their schedules. Ten was honestly a little terrified of her and her efficiency.

"Okay, I can come," said Johnny with a smile, pocketing his phone. "Let's go!"

The two of them split up with Taeyong and Doyoung at the school doors. Ten watched their retreating figures thoughtfully as the sound of their bickering faded into the sounds of the rest of the city.

"Johnny," Ten said as they started to walk to the bakery. "Is it just me, or have Taeyong and Doyoung become awfully close over the summer? Closer than they were before, I mean."

He nodded. "Yeah, I noticed too. I mean, it's not surprising, since they did hang out a lot without us."

"Yeah, but like— you know Taeyong has had a crush on Doyoung for like the past year, right? And I couldn't really tell what Doyoung thought of him, but— Johnny, they're going to watch a zombie movie today. Doesn't Doyoung hate zombie movies?"

Johnny made a little _oh_ sound as he understood what Ten was implying. "Yeah! He hates zombie movies, thinks they're stupid and unrealistic." He started to grin. "Oh, I see. You want to try and get them together?"

Ten grinned back. "You read my mind, John."

The bakery door jingled merrily as they pushed it open, and they both drew in a deep breath as the smell of the bakery surrounded them.

"Hey Ten, Johnny!" His mom called from where she was cleaning the counter. "How was school?"

"Good! We're gonna go upstairs to study, if that's okay?"

"Yup, that's fine! There's a batch of cookies fresh out of the oven if you'd like."

"Thanks, mom!" Ten darted to the back of the bakery to make a beeline for the cookies. While Johnny was distracted by the cake display case in front, he shoved two cookies in his bag for Tikki and grabbed one for himself. "Hey Johnny, you want any?"

"Nah, I'm good." Johnny said. "I have a shoot later this evening, anyways."

Ten frowned a little. Although this wasn't unusual for Johnny, it still made Ten concerned that Johnny always had to watch his weight for his photoshoots. "Okay, then. Come on, let's go!" He led the way upstairs, munching on his cookie as he walked.

The two of them made their way to the living room and flopped down onto the couches. "So," Johnny began. "What evil mastermind plan did you think up to get Taeyong and Doyoung together?"

Ten laughed. "I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I just noticed how close they'd gotten and needed to gossip about it. Though before we start scheming, we need to confirm if Doyoung actually likes Taeyong back."

"Let me guess, you want me to fish for information?"

"Obviously. You've known Doyoung for longer, and he's less defensive around you. Every time I talk to him it turns into an argument."

Johnny snorted. "That's because you annoy him on purpose."

"True." Ten admitted with a laugh. "Because his reactions are funny! But anyways, that's why I need you as my partner in crime."

Johnny chuckled. "I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything. He'd never admit something like that directly."

Ten nodded in agreement. "Still, it's a critical phase of our mission. There's no point to all of this if Doyoung doesn't like him back." He pointed his finger at Johnny and narrowed his eyes. "I'm relying on you, here. You better get me the right information, agent," he said as threateningly as possible.

Johnny laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll do my best. I want the best for them too, you know. Any other orders for me?"

Ten pretended to consider for a moment, then shook his head. "Nope. That will be all for Phase 1."

"Phase 1, huh?" Johnny asked with a grin. "Sounds ominous. Should I be scared for Phase 2?"

"That is none of your concern, agent." Ten said primly, trying to sound as pretentious as possible before breaking out into a laugh. "Anyways, we should probably get back to our main mission, AKA our homework."

Johnny groaned. "Ugh, yeah. Homework."

* * *

About an hour later, Ten had given up on studying for now and was alternating between scrolling through Instagram and sneaking glances at Johnny working. He looked cute like this, sitting cross-legged next to the coffee table, eyes focused on his laptop as he typed out some paper they had due in a few days. Ten thought, idly, that he wanted to hold Johnny's hand, but then realized that would prevent him from working on his essay, and he wouldn't want to interrupt Johnny's studiousness.

The soft quiet was disturbed by a loud ringing sound, and Ten startled slightly. "Oh, is that Nathalie?"

Johnny checked his phone. "Yeah, I have to go now, sorry. It was nice hanging out with you, though. It's definitely been a while." He said with a soft smile.

Ten smiled back. "Yeah, it was. Here, I'll walk you to the door."

He watched from the front steps of the bakery as Johnny slid into the backseat of the waiting car, waving at him as he drove away. After he was gone, Ten turned to go back upstairs and flopped down on his bed with a huff.

"Ugh. What does he have to be so cute and nice for?" He complained.

Tikki giggled, flying out of his backpack to float in the air in front of him. "It's not his fault you like him."

Ten shook his head obstinately. "It's totally his fault. If he weren't so nice, and funny, and appreciative of art, and comfortable to be around, then I wouldn't have to deal with these stupid feelings."

"Feelings aren't stupid! There's nothing stupid about you liking him, Ten."

He sighed. "I know. I just wish... I don't know. Ugh, I really need to do homework. And think of a plan to defeat Hawkmoth. But homework first, since it's due tomorrow." He pushed himself off of the bed with a groan. "Tikki, please yell at me if you see me not working." 

She nodded. "Okay! Good luck with your homework!"

By the time he finished his homework, it was around midnight. When he looked over, he found Tikki already asleep on one of his pillows, her tiny kwami body a cheerful red dot in the warm lighting of his room. He smiled fondly. Even asleep, his kwami was able to lift his mood.

Quietly, he brushed his teeth and changed into pajamas before climbing into bed. "Goodnight, Tikki," he whispered, closing his eyes and settling down to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> random quick question for yall: do you prefer "superhero-ing" or "superheroing"? I can't decide which one looks less weird.  
> anyways, thank you for reading!! :)


	3. thank god it's friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir meet up to discuss The Plan, and Johnny starts stressing about his photography portfolio.

Ladybug was already waiting on the rooftop when Johnny arrived as Chat Noir, carrying a plastic bag in his clawed hand.

"Hey LB! Fancy seeing you here." Johnny called.

Ladybug smiled, deciding to play along. "Yes, what a coincidence we just happened to meet on this rooftop!" He called back, as Johnny landed next to him. "Do you have what I came for?" he asked in a mock-whisper, training his best "intense spy movie stare" at Johnny.

Johnny laughed. "Wow, straight to business! But yes, I did bring what you asked for," he replied with a wink. "Sorry I'm late though, had a bit of a hard time sneaking out today."

"That's okay, you know I've been late before too," Ladybug said, dropping the spy act. "Wanna talk inside?" He asked, gesturing over to what looked like a small room at the side of the rooftop. "Don't worry, it's not connected to the main building. It's just a utility room for their satellite communications stuff or whatever."

Johnny shrugged. "Sure," he said, following Ladybug into the small room. It was fairly cramped, with a panel of switches, some tubing, and other complicated-looking things that Johnny did not want to mess with. "Any reason why, though? I'm guessing you didn't choose this room for its aesthetic appeal."

Ladybug laughed. "You guess right. I just didn't want people to see us exchanging phones— people might speculate and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves. And we definitely don't want Hawkmoth to become suspicious that we're planning something."

Johnny nodded. "Smart." Looking around the room and finding no chairs or tables or any kind, he decided to plop down on the floor. "Well, here's yours." He said, taking a small box out of his bag and handing it to Ladybug. "I already put each other's numbers in."

Johnny felt a strange sense of anticipation rising in his chest as Ladybug accepted the box, taking the lid off and holding the shiny new phone in his hands. Even though this was just a tool for superhero communications and not really a gift, Johnny wanted Ladybug to like it.

"Feels a little bit like a brick." Ladybug commented with a laugh. "It's good, though, don't worry. It's less likely to break this way, considering all the running around we do, and I didn't want you to shell out for something fancy."

The tight feeling in Johnny's chest eased a little at the words. "Glad you like it," he responded.

Ladybug turned the phone on, swiping through the screens. He laughed when he got to the contacts screen, where Johnny had saved his number as "your favorite cat". "Your favorite cat? You wish, Chat Noir." He shook his head, still laughing. "I already have a cat."

Johnny gasped. "There's another cat in your life? You wound me, bugaboo. What does he have that I don't?"

Ladybug smiled teasingly. "Well, for one, he's a lot cuter."

"I am plenty cute." Johnny declared, crossing his arms and sticking out his lower lip in a pout. Ladybug burst out laughing, pushing him away with a hand on his chest. 

"Oh my god, you are a grown-ass man. Stop pouting!"

"I will once you give me a better reason!"

"Okay, okay!" Ladybug exclaimed, still laughing at his expression. "Well, unlike you, my cat is actually quiet. And has soft fur."

"I can be quiet if I try!" protested Johnny. "And as for the second one... I mean, my hair is soft?"

That seemed to give Ladybug pause, as if he was thinking about something, before he shook his head. "Not the same!" He declared emphatically.

Johnny laughed, deciding to drop the argument. "Well, that cat must be very lucky to have you then."

"He is." Ladybug replied with a scoff. "I spoil him way too much. He's such a pretentious princess."

"Then why do you keep spoiling him?"

"Because he's my baby! I fought so hard to have him, since my parents were pretty against it at first."

Johnny narrowed his eyes, the gears in his brain turning. "Wait... so you wanted a cat? Does this mean," he gasped. "You're secretly a cat person?"

Ladybug paused, looking like he was thinking very hard about how to deny it. "... Maybe." He said tentatively, avoiding eye contact. "Okay, fine, yes," he finally admitted, looking back up at Johnny, who was sporting a shit-eating grin. "And before you say anything else— me being a cat person does not mean I like you! I still have standards, you know! And besides, you're not even a real cat! Your ears and tail are fake!"

"Well, even though they're just part of the magical supersuit, they act realistically enough," Johnny replied, flicking his tail for good measure. He used it to try and poke Ladybug's nose, but Ladybug simply grabbed it and threw it back at him.

"I've always wondered how that works. Like, why don't I have antennae or something? And also, your tail is literally a belt! You've taken it off before!"

Johnny shrugged, chuckling as he tried to poke Ladybug in the side (and was thwarted again). "Well, I obviously can't control it after I take it off. That would be really freaky. I don't know, it just feels instinctive? It feels like a part of me when I have it on, but once I take it off it just becomes a regular belt and I don't feel any different except just a little less balanced, since the tail helps with that."

"Huh," said Ladybug thoughtfully. "Well, anyways," he continued, checking the time on his phone. "I have a lot of homework today so I can't stay too long, but I wanted to hash out some things about the plan with you."

Johnny laughed. "Are we just calling it The Plan? Shouldn't we come up with some cool secret codename?"

Ladybug rolled his eyes. "Sure, you can come up with one if you want, as long as it's not too suspicious sounding. I don't want Hawkmoth to figure out that we're up to something; I want this to be a surprise."

Johnny nodded. "Sounds good."

"So," Ladybug began. "We know Hawkmoth wants the miraculouses, right? And he's primarily after ours, but he wants the other ones as well. So I figured, the only way to lure him out or figure out where he's hiding is to pretend to let him have one— like, either pretending to lose it during battle or getting it stolen from us while fighting an akuma."

"Makes sense." Johnny responded, thinking it over. "I was thinking kind of the same thing, actually. But where are we going to get a fake miraculous box?"

Ladybug shrugged. "I can make one, it's not a big deal."

Johnny raised his eyebrows, eyes widening. "You can make one? Dude, that's so cool! Guess you really are a design major." He smiled, looking at Ladybug admiringly.

Ladybug shook his head with a short laugh. "No, seriously, it's not that big of a deal! But yeah, I've got that covered. The one problem with this plan is that it relies on waiting for an akuma to strike, and trying to carry it out while actually trying to not die from the akuma. And also, we need to be prepared for any scenario, and we'd probably need help, and I don't know how we could time everything so it works out. And oh!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Are you good at acting? Because if we're going to pretend to lose a Miraculous, we're going to have to be pretty convincing."

"I mean, I've never really tried acting?" Johnny responded, trying to imagine himself acting in the middle of a battle. There had been a few times where he'd pretended to do something in order to lure an akuma over, and it seemed to work fine all those times. But akumatized people tended to have one-track minds anyways, so that probably wasn't a good measure of acting ability. "I think I'd be okay at it though? Or at least, not horrible." After all, wasn't modeling kind of like acting? Looking happy, looking cool, looking relaxed while surrounded by the constant buzz of people and bright lights?

Ladybug nodded. "Good enough for me. I think Hawkmoth would buy it anyways, since he's pretty desperate." Johnny hummed in response. "I was planning on putting a GPS tracker or something on the box, but I think the suit magic might interfere with it, so we need to have someone be able to follow it discreetly and quickly."

"A shame we don't have any invisibility powers," Johnny remarked. "Could the Fox be used to essentially make someone invisible though? Or maybe the wind dragon?"

Ladybug nodded. "I think so. Maybe we should use both, just to make sure? Usually Hawkmoth will just let the akuma send it to him, but if he sends Mayura out to get it and she realizes she's being followed, she could attack, and I don't feel comfortable with the odds of a 1-to-1 battle going our way."

"Yeah, you're right." Johnny agreed.

They continued to discuss details in this back-and-forth: who they wanted to involve, how they were going to time it, when they wanted to do it, so on and so forth. The passage of time felt strange in the cramped, dark utility room, the sounds from outside muted by the thick walls and the constant gentle whirring of mechanical equipment. Johnny felt comfortable here, strangely, despite the fact that his legs were starting to fall asleep from being folded up on the limited floor space. In the dark like this, his night vision gave him an advantage, and that meant he could admire Ladybug's masked face as much as he wanted. And as they continued to discuss, Johnny started to feel more anchored, more purposeful. Ladybug was right— it was nice having some sort of a plan, to feel like they were finally going somewhere.

Soon, however, they both needed to leave.

"Well," Ladybug said, standing up and brushing himself off. "I think that was a very productive scheming session." He declared with a grin.

Johnny stood up as well, stretching out his tingly legs. "Yeah, definitely. It's just... really nice to have a plan."

Ladybug smiled in understanding. "Yeah, it is. Hey, if this is the kind of stuff I come up with when tipsy, maybe I should drink more often." He mused jokingly. "Anyways, I really should head home— I have some homework due tomorrow that I haven't started yet."

Johnny nodded. "Same. See you next akuma attack, then?"

Ladybug laughed. "Yup. Bug out!"

* * *

After slipping through his bedroom window, Johnny detransformed and flopped into his bed with a sigh.

"Ugh. I don't want to move."

Plagg snorted. "That's what you get for sneaking out to spend time with your _precious Ladybug._ " He drawled.

"Shut up!" Johnny exclaimed, throwing a pillow that Plagg easily dodged. "Besides, it wasn't for hanging out or anything, it was for planning. So we can, you know, finally get rid of Hawkmoth."

"Yeah, yeah, but Hawkmoth or no Hawkmoth, I was promised cheese! Where's my camembert, huh?"

"Ugh, you're so annoying. You know where the camembert is, you can get some yourself."

"But I'm so tired after this transformation, I can't possibly fly all the way over to—"

"Fine." Johnny relented, pushing himself off of the bed with a groan. He couldn't believe he'd once thought Plagg was cute, the first time he'd seen his tiny floating cat body. Now he knew that Plagg was literally just a thousands-of-years-old god who abused his powers to eat the grossest smelling cheeses possible.

Johnny pushed open his bedroom door, looking out into the hallway to see if anyone was there. When he found it clear, he quietly made his way downstairs and into the kitchen.

The moment the pantry door had closed shut behind him, Plagg stuck his head out from Johnny's pocket and breathed in deep. "Ahhhh, cheese! My lovely, lovely, cheese!" He called out, zooming among the stacks of food.

"Yeah, yeah, just take whatever you want and then we can get out of here. I still have homework to do! And college apps."

"Who cares about college when you have this much cheese? Besides, college can't be that important if it wasn't even around the last time I was out of the Miracle Box." Plagg said dismissively.

"Well, it's important to me, okay?" Johnny said. "Now hurry up and choose a cheese already."

* * *

Johnny's homework hadn't taken as long as he thought it would take, so after he finished it he ended up with some extra time that he decided to use to work on his college applications. His father wanted to review everything before he sent it out, so he needed to have solid drafts of everything done by the end of the month so that he'd have another month to make revisions based on his father's corrections.

"Okay," he said to himself. "Time to figure my shit out."

He clicked open his file of photographs and began sorting through them to decide which might be portfolio-worthy and which were not. By the time it hit midnight, he was exhausted from the past hour of staring intensely at his screen full of photographs and debating whether something was good enough or not. Methodically going through all the photographs he'd accumulated was tedious and mentally exhausting, but it had to be done. He'd gotten through a good chunk of them tonight, but he wasn't completely satisfied with a lot of them. After all, he only got 12 shots for his portfolio— he needed to make sure they were all stunning.

His hands itched for his camera, feeling suddenly like he needed to take a million pictures right now to get something good enough for his portfolio, but he tamped down the urge and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. There'd be no point in trying to take pictures right now. Maybe he'd bring his camera to school tomorrow and see if inspiration struck.

He washed up and climbed into bed carefully so he wouldn't disturb Plagg, who was sleeping on one of his pillows. Plagg's tiny chest rose and fell with each little breath he took, and Johnny couldn't help but smile. Okay, maybe Plagg was still kind of cute. But only when he was sleeping.

"Goodnight, Plagg." He whispered, before his head hit the pillow and he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next day at school passed more or less normally. During lunch the four of them sat together as usual, complaining about the homework and stealing each other's food.

"I'm just glad it's Friday," Doyoung was saying as he took a bite of his sandwich. "I mean, I was excited for school to start last week, but now that it's actually started I'm just excited for a break."

Ten laughed. "Same. I'm so excited to go home once school lets out." He paused a moment, remembering something. "Wait, no, I have dance practice! Shit, Taeyong, we have dance practice!"

"Ten, we've always had dance practice on Fridays during the school year. Why, what's wrong? Did you forget and schedule something else?" Taeyong asked worriedly.

"No, no, I didn't schedule anything else, but— Taeyong. We're team captains this year. This is our first practice as captains! I am not prepared!" Ten exclaimed. Taeyong patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

"It'll be fine, Ten," He said with a reassuring smile. "We'll figure it out together."

"Oh, that's it!" Johnny remarked out of the blue. "Ten, Taeyong, could I drop in on one of your dance practices sometime? I want to take some more pictures for my portfolio."

Ten shrugged. "Sure! If you think a bunch of sweaty teenage boys are worth your portfolio space, be our guest." He said with a laugh.

"Yeah, sounds good to me!" Taeyong added. "Some of the guys might feel awkward about being photographed though, so you should probably ask them beforehand."

"Of course." Johnny nodded.

"Oh, wait, Johnny! I've been meaning to ask you," Ten said. "But could you help me take pictures of some of my designs for my portfolio? Not now, obviously, since I'm nowhere near done, but in the future? If you're not too busy, that is..."

"Oh, yeah, sure! I'd love to do that! It shouldn't take long, and besides, your designs are awesome!"

Ten blushed a little. "They're not that spectacular, but thanks, Johnny."

"Just accept the damn compliment, Ten," Doyoung snarked. Ten stuck his tongue out at him in retaliation.

Just then, a blaring alarm cut through the air, and the lunchroom erupted in a chorus of complaints. "Ugh, another akuma attack?" Doyoung asked.

Taeyong looked down at his phone. "Yeah, looks like it. It's on the other side of town, so we should be safe for now. Still, come on," he said, standing up and grabbing Doyoung's wrist. "Let's go find somewhere safer to hide until this is over." He looked around to try and find Ten, but didn't see him anywhere— his seat was empty, and he'd taken his bag with him too. "Hey, where'd Ten and Johnny go?"

* * *

After Johnny had helped deal with the akuma and the sentimonster, he rushed back to school, detransforming behind the school's giant garbage disposal box. There were still a few people emerging from supply closets or locker rooms or wherever else they were hiding, so he joined the rest of the stragglers and slipped into the classroom. Doyoung, Taeyong, and Ten were already there, talking about the akuma while they waited for class to start.

"So Doyoung and I were trying to find a place to hide but most of the safe zones were kind of crowded," Taeyong was explaining. "So Doyoung took me to this top-secret location—"

"You can't just say that! It's supposed to be a secret!"

"Well, it's not like I'm going to tell them where it is!"

Ten waved at Johnny as he sat down, pointing at Doyoung and Taeyong and raising his eyebrows as if to say _do you see these two?_ Johnny grinned and shrugged in response.

"Hold on, what is this about a top-secret location?" Ten asked mischievously. Doyoung groaned in response.

"See, this is why you shouldn't have said anything! Now Ten won't shut up about it!"

Ten laughed. "Since you know I won't shut up about it, you might as well tell me already." 

Doyoung rolled his eyes. "Shut up, I'm not going to tell you. It's a chorus kid and drama kid secret. I only told Taeyong since he promised me he'd dance for the musical in the spring so he's almost an honorary drama kid already."

Ten looked like he wanted to say something more, but at that moment, Miss Bustier clapped her hands. "Alright, class, looks like everyone's finally back after the akuma attack! So let's get started. Please take out the homework I assigned a few days ago..."

Johnny rifled through his backpack for his homework, setting it neatly on his desk. He glanced at the clock— just a few more hours of school. Just a few more hours before another weekend of shutter noises and flashing lights and a house too big for two.

 _Well_ , Johnny thought wryly. _Thank god it's Friday._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so happy when I saw the new wayv video because yall! designer ten has returned!!  
> also it's crazy that he drew lucas as a monkey because I was actually planning on giving lucas the monkey miraculous at some point in the future....  
> and also that he drew himself as a fox, since I was actually planning to have him use the fox miraculous semi-regularly later on in this fic in combination with the ladybug miraculous. in my brain I just figure fox -> illusions -> artist.
> 
> anyways I hope yall enjoyed this chapter! I've got most of the plot for things planned out by now so I'm kind of excited for how this will turn out, especially since I usually suck at writing things that are very plot-heavy. I used to write a ton in middle school until I realized that none of the shit I was writing made sense/went anywhere, so then I kinda stopped writing as much and when I did write in high school it was either some experimental very descriptive stuff or poetry. I'm generally pretty bad at planning and I just never felt like I had any ideas, so it's kind of crazy to me that I suddenly have so much inspiration? But I'm super out of practice with writing plot now, so I keep struggling with the transitions and the pacing haha it keeps feeling awkward to me, but let me know what you guys think!
> 
> also, I apologize for any inaccuracies in how portfolios and stuff work lmao I googled some stuff and watched some videos on youtube about it but obviously I don't totally understand it since I've never done it myself. I also briefly googled how college works in France, but unfortunately ten and johnny will still have to suffer through college app stress in this fic because they're applying to some colleges in america.


	4. we gon' light it up now, darling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir get ready to set The Plan in motion. Meanwhile, Johnny and Ten also make progress on their plan to get Doyoung and Taeyong together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was doing such a good job of keeping consistent chapter lengths up until this point lmao. not that I was particularly trying to, but the first three chapters just so happened to end up being about the same length so I was starting to wonder whether that was just my natural inclination. but nope this chapter is twice as long as the previous ones were LMAO so I hope yall enjoy!!

_ Click click. _

"Yes, good, just tilt your head a little to the left... now look up at the camera... good."

Johnny had been up since six this morning to get ready for today's shoot: an advertisement for the Gabriel brand's fall collection. Right now he was outside, in a burnt-orange silk shirt and high-waisted dress pants, leaning against some expensive-looking car parked in front of a background of trees.

"Okay, we're good there... let's move to a couple shots of you on top of the car."

Johnny nodded, and an assistant hurried over with a stepladder so that Johnny could climb on top of the car. He stood on top of the car a few moments, just looking out at all the commotion of the shoot: the assistants scurrying back and forth, the hair and makeup artists getting the other models ready for their shots, managers either on the phone or furiously typing on their laptops. He spotted Jaehyun down below getting his makeup done, and resisted the urge to wave like an idiot.

"Stay there!" The director instructed. "Can someone adjust the lights a little?"

While the lighting technicians tilted the lights up to hit him at his current, car-boosted height, Johnny zoned out and let his mind wander. A chilly breeze blew through the area, and he shivered a little in his thin shirt. Standing here like this, with a breeze blowing and a decent vantage point, made him feel a little more like Chat Noir, and he smiled idly at the thought. From there, his mind wandered to Ladybug and the last proper conversation he'd had with him, where they'd discussed The Plan.

Damn, they really needed a better name for that. Johnny resolved to spend his modeling time today coming up with a good codename; then, when he got home, he could have an excuse to text Ladybug. It still made him feel a little giddy, knowing that he could just text Ladybug, that they had each other's numbers now. Still, they hadn't actually texted each other yet; Johnny didn't want to annoy Ladybug too much, and they hadn't really had much reason to text yet.

"Okay, we're all set!" The director called. Johnny nodded and got back to work, following the director's instructions on autopilot as his brain spun with possible codename ideas.

* * *

Unfortunately, Johnny was not a very good multitasker, so by the time he got home in the afternoon he hadn't gotten very far on the codename front. Instead, he decided to call Doyoung to work on their physics homework— and to potentially extract information for his other Top Secret Plan. (Man, he should probably come up with a codename for that one too.)

Johnny smiled as Doyoung's face popped up on the screen. "Hellooo," he greeted with a small wave.

"Hey Johnny!" Doyoung responded. He looked like he was sitting at his desk in the living room, as usual. "How was the shoot?"

Johnny shrugged. "It was fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. Jaehyun was there, but I didn't get to talk to him much." He paused, thinking. "I got to stand on top of a car, though, which was kind of fun! I could see a lot of people from there. How was your morning?"

Doyoung laughed. "I've been fine. I worked on some of our history homework this morning, and then grabbed lunch with Taeyong."

Johnny hummed. "Taeyong, huh? Did you take him to some sort of top secret lunch place, this time?" He asked teasingly, raising his eyebrows at Doyoung.

Doyoung flushed a little and rolled his eyes. "You guys are never gonna let that go, huh? But no, we just went to that Chinese place near the bakery, the one Kun's parents own?"

Johnny nodded. "Yeah, I know the one."

"We actually ran into Chenle there," Doyoung continued. "I don't know if you know him, but he's friends with Jisung and Jeno from the dance team? Anyways, turns out he idolizes Taeyong or something, he basically crashed our lunch to talk about how cool Taeyong is," Doyoung said with a laugh. "You should've seen Taeyong's face, he looked simultaneously like he was about to explode from compliments and also super awkward because he didn't know how to deal with this middle schooler hanging off of him."

Johnny laughed. "I can imagine! Taeyong always gets so flustered by compliments."

"Yeah, it's really cute," Doyoung said with a laugh.

"...So you think Taeyong is cute?" Johnny teased.

"What? No!" Doyoung exclaimed, realizing what he'd just said. "No, no, no, I do not think Taeyong is cute. I can't stand his stupid face. It's just that his reaction to that situation was kind of cute." He explained defensively. "Besides, anyone can be cute sometimes. Even Ten can be cute sometimes, and he's the incarnation of chaotic evil."

Johnny laughed, thinking about Ten's many attempts to act cutesy in order to annoy Doyoung. "Come on, Ten's not that bad. What about me then? Am I cute?" 

Doyoung scoffed. "Yes, you're super cute. Are you happy now?"

Johnny smiled. "Very. Anyways, have you looked at the physics homework yet?"

* * *

Later that afternoon, inspiration struck.

Well, calling it "inspiration" was probably overselling it, but he had come up with some tentative names for The Plan. (The Hawkmoth plan, not the other one. He could only do so much thinking at one time.)

So, he sat down on the couch and attempted to compose his first text message to Ladybug.

"How should I even start this, Plagg?"

Plagg shrugged. "Beats me. I don't know anything about texting etiquette."

"Is it okay if I just say 'hey'? Will he be annoyed that I'm not being, like, professional or something?"

Plagg snorted. "Kid, when have you two ever been professional?"

Johnny nodded. "You're right. Okay, so I'll just say like, 'hey LB'... oh wait, I probably shouldn't call him that, in case these phones get stolen. So I guess just 'hey' would be fine..."

Johnny continued muttering to himself as he typed and backspaced, while Plagg continued to float lazily and munch on his cheese.

"Does this look good?" Johnny asked, shoving his phone screen in Plagg's face. Plagg went briefly cross-eyed trying to look at it, before he shoved it away from his face.

"Kid. You are way overthinking this. Just talk to Ladybug how you normally talk to him! Just think of it like a normal conversation! Jeez, you two are pathetic."

Johnny thought about it for a moment. "I guess you're right. I'm just weirdly nervous, I guess? Since I'm not in the suit right now, I kind of just feel like regular old Johnny." He paused. "Hey, what if you transformed me—"

"Nope, nope!" yelled Plagg, zooming away from Johnny. "Come on, just send the stupid text already!"

Johnny sighed. "Okay, okay, you're right." He pressed "send".

**best b** ****

**your favorite cat:** Hey! I've thought of some potential codename ideas! 

He played Brickbreaker idly while waiting for a response, but a few minutes passed with no new messages.

"Ugh, he's probably busy or something." Johnny said with a groan, throwing his phone onto his bed. "I should just go practice piano."

"Maybe he's still sleeping," Plagg suggested with a shrug. "I know I would be if I didn't have to follow you around."

Johnny snorted. "That's just because you're a lazy cat, Plagg."

"Says the one currently lying on his bed. So are you going to practice piano, or not?"

* * *

Ten awoke from his nap with the comforting weight of cat on his chest.

Opening his eyes blearily, he turned his head to try and find his phone, not wanting to move and risk waking Louis. He carded his fingers through Louis' soft fur absentmindedly and spotted his phone on his desk across the room, far out of reach.

"Tikki," he whispered. "Are you awake?"

Her bright red body flew into view in front of him. "Yup! I've been up for a while."

"Can you grab me my phone from the desk over there?"

Tikki nodded, zooming off and returning with his phone. Ten carefully extracted his limbs from under the blanket so that he wouldn't disturb Louis. "Thanks, Tikki," he said with a smile. "You're the best."

"It's no problem! Besides, it's not like I have much else to do. Oh also, while you were sleeping, Chat Noir texted."

"Oh, he did? I was wondering when that cat would text." He said with a grin, unlocking his phone and going to his text messages. "I don't see any new messages though?"

"It's on your other phone, remember?"

"...Right." Ten yawned, stretching his arms out a little. Tikki had already flown off to unplug the other phone from its charger and came back into view, depositing the phone on the bed next to Ten's head. "Thanks, Tikki." He unlocked the phone and navigated to the messages.

**your favorite cat**

**your favorite cat:** Hey! I've thought of some potential codename ideas!

Ten laughed. "This feels weird. I never thought he'd be the type to capitalize his sentences."

**best b:** let me guess... they're all puns??

He waited a few minutes for a response, but didn't get any. Ten was starting to get a bit restless lying here now that he'd woken up, but he was still trapped in place by sleeping cat. 

A chime from his regular phone came to relieve his boredom.

**the CCC (Caring Cuties Committee aka Chinese Culture Club)**

**big baby:** HEY how is everyone doing?? I haven't seen you guys in a while!!

**dj xiao:** you saw most of us during lunch yesterday, Lucas

**big baby:** but not all of us have the same lunchtime! I haven't seen Ten or Kun or Chenle in a while! Or Sicheng!

**kunny kun kun:** If you actually want to see me, then you should show up to our first club meeting of the year next week.

**kunny kun kun:** In case you all forgot over the summer, which you probably did, we meet on Mondays in room 168.

**li yong qin:** I'll make sure to avoid that room in particular, then! <3

**kunny kun kun:** Good riddance. I don't even know why you're in this club anyways. You're neither Chinese nor cultured.

**yangx2:** LOL ten you just got DESTROYED

**li yong qin:** sorry what was that I don't speak gremlin

At that moment, Louis let out a soft meow and began to stir, so Ten set down his phone and resumed petting. Louis finally opened his eyes, staring flatly at Ten.

"Good afternoon, baby!" Ten murmured softly.

Louis gave an unimpressed meow in response.

"Are you hungry, baby? Want me to get you some food?"

Louis turned and jumped off the bed to head towards the door, which Ten took as answer enough. He opened the trapdoor and held Louis in one hand as he descended down to the living room, setting him onto the floor once he hit the bottom. Louis headed over to his empty food bowls and sat there, waiting expectantly.

Ten huffed. "Okay, you spoiled kitten, I'm getting your food." After he filled Louis' bowls, he headed downstairs to the kitchen to grab a snack. At this point in the afternoon, the bakery wasn't too busy, so he was able to sneak a cookie away for Tikki and wave to his parents.

"Oh wait, Ten!" His dad called. "Can you help out in the front for a few minutes? I need to go sign on a shipment out back soon."

"Sure." Ten responded, grabbing an apron and tying it around his waist. He went to the front, where one of the part-time workers was already at the cash register.

"Hey Taeil!"

Taeil turned around to greet him with a smile. "Ten! I haven't talked to you in a while."

"Yeah, I've been busy with school."

Taeil nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I was totally swamped around this time last year too. Senior year is rough."

They continued to chat for a few minutes, since there weren't many customers around. Soon, Ten's father came back to the front.

"You can go now, Ten! Thanks for the help."

"No problem!" Ten replied with a smile, heading back upstairs.

When he got back to his room, he checked his phone and found over a hundred new notifications, all from the CCC groupchat. Deciding that he didn't want to deal with all of that, he checked his other phone and found new messages from Chat.

**your favorite cat**

**your favorite cat:** Okay so I wasn't sure whether to do something moth related or butterfly related

**your favorite cat:** Since his name is Hawkmoth but the miraculous is a butterfly??

**your favorite cat:** Idk why his superhero name doesn't have butterfly in it maybe his fragile masculinity just couldn't deal with it

**your favorite cat:** Anyways so my first idea was "Operation Light This Motherfucker Up" since moths are attracted to light??? 

**your favorite cat:** Second option was "Operation Let's Pin This Bitch"

**your favorite cat:** Third option is "Operation Nothing But Net"

**your favorite cat:** Admittedly these names are not my best work but in my defense, butterfly/moth puns are difficult

**your favorite cat:** I tried googling some but all I got were puns about mothballs

**best b:** ew gross

**best b:** and also, we're definitely not doing the third option

**best b:** feels WAY too frat boy

**your favorite cat:** Figured you'd say something like that lol that's why I put it as option 3

**best b** : I think out of the first two I like the first one better

**best b:** idk what it is but I think it satisfies my desire to absolutely destroy hawkmoth and watch him burn like the dumpster fire he is

**your favorite cat:** Alright!! Operation LTMU it is then!

**your favorite cat:** I was thinking we could use "light it up" as a codeword or something?

**your favorite cat:** We still need to figure out the details of how the plan will work though

**your favorite cat:** And let the rest of the team know about it

**best b:** yeah I agree!

**best b:** I should be done with the fake miraculous by the end of this weekend

**best b:** so we could meet up during the week sometime? if you're not too busy

**your favorite cat:** I'm never too busy for you, bugaboo!

**your favorite cat:** I shall count down the days until we can meet.

**best b:** LMAO you're so dramatic smh

**best b:** I gotta see when I'm available first but I'll text you later to figure out a time!

Ten set his phone down beside him and stretched. "I should really start my homework. And start making that box."

Tikki nodded. "It'd be nice to have things set up and ready before school gets really busy."

Ten sighed, cracking his neck and rolling over to his desk. "You're right. Okay, time to get to work."

* * *

Unfortunately, Ten wasn't able to get much done that day since an akuma attacked just as he was starting to get into the work groove, and then he needed to help out at the bakery for a big catering order. The next morning, he decided that he needed to get his homework done first, so by the time he was finally able to finish making the fake box and miraculouses, it was nearing one in the morning.

He figured that Chat was probably asleep by now, but— fuck, he was finally done with this stupid box, this tangible, physical proof that their plan was real and that they were really going to try and pull this off. It was another step towards being done with all the fighting, and it made him feel so strangely accomplished that he felt like he just had to tell someone. And, well, Chat was really the only person he could tell about it, so he shot off a quick text before going to brush his teeth.

**your favorite cat**

**best b:** done with the box!! finally!!!!!!

**best b:** it took a while and it was really annoying to make but I'm finally done!! we can move on to like.... phase 2? whatever the next phase of our plan is

**best b:** if we even have phases

**best b:** point is we are one step closer to lighting up this motherfucker >:)

Surprisingly, he'd gotten a reply by the time he'd finished brushing his teeth.

**your favorite cat:** YES YOU GO LB!!!!

**your favorite cat:** Dude I still can't believe you can just... make a box like that

**your favorite cat:** Seriously it's so cool

**best b:** hahaha not really! I just have a lot of practice with making things

**best b** : but thank you

**your favorite cat:** Makes sense, seeing how often you make my day ;)

**best b:** ughhhh that was so cheesy your kwami could eat it

**your favorite cat:** LOL Plagg only likes the grossest, stinkiest cheeses though

**best b:** my point still stands

**your favorite cat:** Ouch, bugaboo

**best b:** ANYWAYS it's really late haha I need to go to sleep!

**best b:** come to think of it why were you awake in the first place

**best b:** I didn't expect you to respond when I texted lmao

**your favorite cat:** Just finishing up some homework haha

**your favorite cat:** And as much as I love talking to you, I'd hate to keep you from your beauty rest

**your favorite cat:** Goodnight, bugaboo!

**best b:** haha goodnight, chaton

* * *

Ten was feeling in a pretty good mood the next morning, humming to himself as he got ready for school. After his last class of the day, he bid goodbye to Taeyong and headed towards room 168. Although he didn't usually go to club meetings (because he wasn't actually a member of the club), the club members had all adopted him as one of their own, and after working on the fake miraculous box all weekend he figured it'd be nice to go see his friends and catch up.

However, on the way to the classroom, he was stopped by a familiar voice calling his name.

"Hey Ten!"

He turned to find Johnny walking towards him, probably having just gotten out of class.

"Hey, Johnny!" 

Ten waited a bit awkwardly as Johnny jogged to close the gap between them. 

"Hey! I just got out of stats. Where are you heading?"

"Chinese Culture Club. You?"

Johnny laughed. "Since when did you actually go to club meetings? Tell Hendery and Kun I said hi though. And I'm just heading home, I have a piano lesson."

Ten nodded. "Well, have fun with that." He responded, realizing as he said it how lame it sounded.

"Oh, also! I talked to Doyoung over the weekend, I'm like 95% sure he likes Taeyong. Which I guess makes it... statistically significant?" He mused. "Sorry, I just got out of stats, my brain is on stats mode. Anyways, point being we should proceed with caution, but we can proceed to the next phase of whatever your crazy plan is." He announced with a smile.

Ten laughed. "I honestly haven't thought that far. Maybe we could leave them alone together again during the next akuma attack?" Ten always ditched them during akuma attacks anyways because he needed to transform into Ladybug, but it was getting harder and harder to find excuses. Maybe having Johnny to ditch with would help, and then he could find some other excuse to ditch Johnny later. It was easier to lose one person in a crowd of people rather than three.

Unbeknownst to Ten, Johnny was thinking the same thing as he considered the suggestion. "Yeah, we could try that! Even if it doesn't work, it'd still be fun to tease them about it." He said with a grin.

They were now approaching room 168, and could clearly hear the chaos going on inside. There was a lot of yelling in Mandarin, a high-pitched cackle that was probably Chenle, and some music being blasted that was probably from Yangyang or Hendery. Through the open doorway, Lucas looked up and gasped. "Ten's here!" He grinned widely. "Ten, I haven't seen you in so long!"

Ten allowed himself to be assaulted by Lucas' enthusiasm and smiled back. "Yeah, figured I should stop by and grace you all with my presence."

Lucas then turned to Johnny with that same bright grin. “Johnny! Are you coming to our club meeting?”

Johnny laughed, shaking his head. "No, I have a piano lesson. Actually, my driver is waiting right outside.” He gestured towards the doors at the end of the hallway, where Ten could see the usual black car. “I should get going soon, so I’ll see you tomorrow?" He said, starting to walk backwards down the hallway to get to the exit.

"Yeah, see you!" Ten waved back, even though Johnny had already turned around to walk and couldn't see him anymore. Hearing a burst of laughter from inside, he turned to watch the lively conversation taking place, and let himself be dragged in to make fun of Xiaojun and his strange taste in food (for probably the hundredth time, but there was always some new food combination to laugh over). All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty good day.

* * *

It was only after Ten got home that he realized, belatedly, that he'd forgotten to set up a time to meet with Chat.

**your favorite cat**

**best b:** HEY I'm a dumbass and forgot to set up a meeting time yesterday!!!

**best b:** when do u wanna meet?

**best b:** I don't think I have tooooo much hw this week? so I can do pretty much any day

**best b:** probably not tonight though since I just hung out with some friends and havent done any hw yet lmao

The response came a few minutes later.

**your favorite cat:** Does tomorrow night work for you?

**best b:** yeah sounds good!! same place as last time??

**your favorite cat:** Yup! It's a date ;)

**best b:** *top secret meeting to expose a local terrorist

**your favorite:** They don't have to be mutually exclusive :P

**best b:** if that's your idea of a date, I feel sorry for any poor souls that end up dating you

**your favorite cat:** :((((((((((((

* * *

The next night, Ten was back in the cramped utility room, sitting cross-legged in the limited space. Chat had already been there when Ten arrived; he'd been sitting slouched against the side wall, so much so that he was almost lying down with his feet up in front of him. He'd snapped to attention briefly when Ten had opened the door to come in, but had relaxed back against the wall once he saw who it was.

"Hey," He said quietly, a smile spreading across his face.

"Hey yourself," Ten responded softly. "I brought the fake box. Wanted you to take a look at it, make sure it looks convincing enough."

Chat pushed himself up to more of a sitting position and turned to face Ten. "Oh, cool! Hold on, let me turn on my baton light, so I can see it better." He pressed a button on his baton and extended it so that it was wedged between the floor and ceiling, staying upright by itself. He carefully accepted the box and held it up to the light, turning it over. "Woah. You even got the box texture right, that's crazy."

Ten smiled. "Yeah, it took me a while to figure out." Although he'd dismissed the box-making as "not a huge deal" earlier, it had still been a bit more complicated than he'd anticipated. He was a little proud of it, considering the fact that it'd taken up a good chunk of his weekend.

Chat opened up the box and delicately took out the miraculous, turning it over in his hands. "Oh, the sheep miraculous?"

Ten nodded. "Yeah, I wanted to choose one that hasn't already been used, and that one just looked like the easiest to replicate."

Chat hummed, tapping the surface gently with the tip of his clawed finger. "Looks good to me. Doesn't seem like it'll scratch easily, though I probably shouldn't try to test that out." 

"If you destroy my hard work, I will throw you off a roof."

Chat laughed. "Wouldn't be the first time. Though I'll admit that I would deserve it, if that happened. Don't worry, I'm being careful." He set the fake miraculous back into the box and closed the lid, handing it back to Ten. Ten took it and put it back inside his yoyo.

"So," Chat began. "How is this going to work, really? Not that I don't trust you, bugaboo, but I still can't wrap my mind around how we're going to make this convincing."

Ten sighed. "I still don't have this totally figured out either. I did test out the fox miraculous though, to make sure it can work to turn someone invisible. But beyond that... I think a lot of this plan relies on doing it during the right kind of akuma attack."

Chat nodded. "Yeah, so with an akuma that can actually send the miraculous to Hawkmoth before we defeat it. Like what happened with the Dark Owl— I watched the footage afterwards, he had a drone that he sent to Hawkmoth. Camera crew lost it about halfway across the city, though."

"Yeah, something like that could work!" Ten paused in thought. "I'm trying to think of another villain that could do something like that. Maybe Monsieur Pigeon? We defeated him so many times, so it'd be easier for us to concentrate more on the plan."

Chat shook his head. "He's friends with the rats now, remember? And besides, I think Hawkmoth kind of gave up on him, since he hasn't been akumatized in a while... like, I don't think I've seen him since the 100th time he got akumatized. But if he does happen to get akumatized, I think that would work."

"Okay, who else have we fought before? Maybe Robostus? Or Christmaster? Someone who can control things."

"The Puppeteer, too," Chat added.

Ten nodded. "Yeah, although Manon has kind of grown out of her doll-obsessed phase," he said with a laugh.

"Well, we'll probably know when the time comes," Chat said with a shrug, yawning tiredly.

"Yeah, hopefully." Ten responded. With the bright light of the baton coming from above, Chat's face was thrown into a strange mix of shadows and light, the contrast stark and comical— like when someone puts a flashlight under their chin to tell ghost stories. Inexplicably, Ten burst out laughing, and Chat's face morphed into a look of confusion that somehow made the shadows even funnier looking.

"Ladybug? Are you okay? What are you laughing at?" Chat chuckled a bit uncertainly, hands held in front of him like he wasn't sure what to do with them. 

"Sorry— it's just," Ten took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Your face!"

"Should I be offended?"

"No, no, it's just that it looked really funny in the lighting." Ten explained, still laughing slightly as he gestured towards the light coming from the baton. "Like, all spooky and stuff."

"Oh," Chat said with a laugh, relaxing. He grabbed the baton and shined it onto his face with a grin. "Like this?" He widened his eyes for dramatic effect, smile stretching wide across his face.

Ten started laughing again. "You look even creepier now!" He exclaimed.

Chat laughed and turned off the light. "Better?"

"Now I can't see you!"

Chat shrugged. "I can still see you, though. Must suck to not have night vision." He teased.

Ten groaned. "Ugh, fine, I'll just turn on my own flashlight." He said, opening up his yoyo. The light from his yoyo was softer and less focused than the baton light had been, and it illuminated the majority of the room in a dim light. "Huh. This is better, actually."

Chat hummed in agreement.

"So, anyways," Ten said, "Back to the plan. I thought about how to make it convincing, and I thought maybe we could get Donghyuck involved?"

Chat's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Why would you need Donghyuck? Besides, didn't you say that he's an annoying brat?"

Ten huffed. "Yes, he is an annoying brat and I don't know why you like him, but that is besides the point. The point is that Donghyuck is literally always around, so I was thinking I could pretend to give the fake miraculous to him, so that the akuma has a window of opportunity to take it."

Chat hesitated. "I guess that could work? I don’t want to put Donghyuck in more danger though. Like, I don't see why you couldn't just pretend to trip like we talked about last time. This seems a bit unnecessarily complicated?"

"Chat, nearly every lucky charm I use ends up being unnecessarily complicated. And Donghyuck already puts himself into so much danger on a regular basis, I don’t think this would make a difference since I’m not actually giving him a miraculous."

Chat laughed. "True, true. I just think you make things complicated for yourself sometimes when you don’t have to." The conversation tapered off into silence for a few moments, both of them thinking through the plan to make sure there wasn't something they'd missed. The white noise of the humming mechanical equipment was interrupted by a loud yawn coming from Chat. Ten laughed softly.

"Tired?"

Chat nodded, slouching back down into the position he was in when Ten had first entered the room. "Mhmm. Work today went on longer than expected."

"What do you do in your work?" Ten asked, the question slipping out absentmindedly before he realized what he'd said. "Wait, nevermind, forget I asked that. That'd be too much information." Moments like these, where Ten had to hold his tongue, constantly reminded him that he could never truly know Chat. That he needed to keep his partner at a distance, to keep both of them safe.

Chat smiled wryly. "It's okay. You know that I'll tell you if I can't answer things." He sighed, trying to stretch out his long legs in the cramped space. In the process, his feet ended up bumping into Ten, who was still sitting cross-legged near the door. "Sorry, was trying to stretch. My foot fell asleep."

Ten shrugged. "It's fine. At least your feet don't smell or anything." He paused, watching as Chat rearranged himself so that he was curled sideways on the floor with his head pillowed on his arm. His eyes had already slipped closed, and his tail had settled down behind him. "Wanna call it a night? I think we went over everything, and you look exhausted. I'll text you once I let the others know about the plan, and if anything else comes up."

Chat nodded sleepily. "Sounds good. I think I'll stay here and nap for a bit, though. Don't wanna get up."

Ten stood up, stretching to crack his back from where he'd been hunched over while sitting. "You sure?" He hesitated as his fingers reached for the doorknob, hand hovering awkwardly in the air. It didn't feel right to leave Chat like this, taking a nap by himself in a tiny utility room. Even though Ten knew he needed to get home before his parents got worried, and that he needed to start his homework, his chest felt tight with anxiety at the thought of leaving. 

Chat's eyes were still closed, so Ten allowed himself a moment to watch the rise and fall of his chest, the twitching of his ears as he began to slip into sleep. Making up his mind, Ten let his hand drop away from the doorknob and took the two small steps across the room to where Chat was curled up, with his back against the corner. He reasoned with himself that the anxiety was the desire to keep Chat safe— Chat was too vulnerable asleep, and anyone could come in and grab his miraculous. It was dangerous for him to sleep here alone. And besides, it didn't seem comfortable for him to sleep on the cold concrete floor like that. Ten didn't want him to wake up sore.

He crouched down next to Chat and put a hand on his torso to shake him lightly. "Hey, Chat."

Chat cracked open his eyes slightly to look at him. "Hm?"

"Scoot over a bit."

Chat closed his eyes again. "Don't wanna move."

Ten rolled his eyes. He grabbed at Chat's shoulder and tried to push him upright a little.

"Come on, just for a little bit." Chat groaned, but managed to push himself up a little so that Ten could squeeze into the corner, sitting up with his back against the wall and legs stretched out in front of him. "Okay, you can put your head down now." Chat let himself fall back down, but this time, his head fell into Ten's lap instead of hitting the ground. He tensed up and blinked open his eyes in confusion, slitted pupils darting around before he turned his head to focus on Ten.

"Ladybug?" 

"Yeah, I'm here. Couldn't let you take a nap by yourself, it'd be too depressing. Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up in a few minutes when I have to leave."

Chat nodded and hummed his acknowledgment, turning sideways again and relaxing back into sleep. Ten couldn't help but smile as he gazed down at Chat's sleeping body— he really was a giant cat sometimes, like Louis but bigger and less aloof. Tentatively, he carded his fingers through Chat's hair, which was still just as soft as it was before. Chat let out a sigh, and after a few seconds a deep purr began to rumble through his chest.

Ten almost giggled, but held himself back so that he wouldn't disturb Chat. He really was like a cat. His purrs were calming, blending in with the clicks and whirring of the utility room, and Ten had to fight not to fall asleep himself. The two of them stayed there for a while, Ten unwilling to move the heavy weight across his legs. It felt grounding, in a way, almost like a weighted blanket.

He ended up getting home later than planned, and fell asleep that night with the comforting weight of Louis across his chest.

* * *

On Friday, Johnny showed up to dance practice, camera in hand and smile on his face.

The moment Johnny had followed Ten and Taeyong through the practice room doors, Donghyuck had yelled "Hyung!" and immediately ditched Yangyang to run across the room to Johnny. Johnny laughed as Donghyuck clung onto him and whined about how he never saw him these days, while Ten shook his head and went over to the side to dump his stuff down.

"Hyung, how come your dad never invites us over anymore? We haven't had a family dinner in ages."

Johnny offered a strained smile. "I don't know, Hyuckie. You know he hasn't been dealing well lately."

Donghyuck sighed. "I know, I know, but it's been years! And he's not the only one who misses her, you know. My mom misses her too, but you don't see her moping around in her mansion all day."

Johnny shrugged. "Everyone deals with things differently, I guess. I don't think we'll be having a family dinner anytime soon, but if you wanted, you could come over just to hang out? I think my dad would be okay with that."

Donghyuck lit up. "Really? Okay, I'll hold you to that." He said with a bright grin, before grabbing Johnny's hand and dragging him over to the wall. "Come on, I want you to meet Yangyang! I just met him last week, we're in the same class this year."

Jeno and Yangyang were chatting about something when Donghyuck approached with Johnny in tow. "This is Yangyang!" He exclaimed, pointing to the boy in question. "And you already know Jeno, so whatever." Jeno shrugged and waved. Meanwhile, Yangyang seemed to be buffering slightly, thinking about something before coming to a realization.

Johnny half-expected to be hit with the "OMG you're a famous model!" gasp, so he was relieved when what came out of Yangyang's mouth was "Oh my god you're Ten's friend!"

Johnny laughed. "Uh, yeah? How do you know Ten?"

"Ten talks about you all the time, it's so annoying," Yangyang said with a roll of his eyes. "He— mmph!" He exclaimed, as a hand came to cover his mouth. Ten had come over at some point and now had a hand firmly over Yangyang's mouth, which Yangyang decided to lick. Ten yelled "gross!" and released him to wipe his hand on Yangyang's shirt.

"Sorry about that," Ten said with a saccharine smile. "He's just an annoying kid I used to babysit."

"I'm not a kid anymore!" Yangyang protested. "I'm a teenager now!"

Ten rolled his eyes. "Yes, like that's so much better. But don't worry," he cooed, grabbing Yangyang and manhandling him into a backhug. "You'll always be my baby Yangyang."

Yangyang shoved him away. "Ugh, get off me! This is why Taeyong is the better captain!" He yelled as he freed himself from Ten's hold.

Once practice was about to officially start, Taeyong rounded up all the club members and introduced Johnny. "Hey everyone! This is Johnny— if you were here last year you probably recognize him, but if not he's just a friend of ours who's here to take some pictures! He also usually takes pictures at our showcases, so you'll see him there in the future too."

Johnny waved. "Uh, hi everyone! Like Taeyong said, I'm just here to take some pictures, mostly just to try and see if I can get any shots I like for my portfolio. If any of you are uncomfortable with me photographing you feel free to let me know and I'll make sure you don't end up in any pictures! And uh, I'll get Taeyong to give you guys my number so that you can text me if you change your mind and don't want me to keep any pictures of you."

Everyone nodded, and Taeyong and Ten began leading warmup stretches at the front of the room while Johnny wandered over to the side and fiddled with his camera. He took pictures as they practiced, trying not to bump into anyone as he made his way around the room.

During a water break, Mark approached Johnny, with Yuta clinging onto him. "Hey Johnny!"

"Hey Mark! How've you been?"

Mark shrugged. "Pretty good, I guess." Yuta detached himself from Mark so that he could lean over and peer at Johnny's camera.

"Can I see the pictures?" Yuta asked.

"Sure!" Johnny said with a smile. "They're kind of raw, though, I might edit them a bit later." He angled the camera towards Yuta and began clicking through the pictures. Yuta and Mark made appreciative noises as he went through, and soon other members of the team had noticed and crowded around him to look as well.

"Ah, Shotaro, you look so cute!" Yuta exclaimed. "Ah, Sicheng, you too! Wait, where's Sicheng?" he said, looking around so he could go attach himself to Sicheng instead now that Jeno had latched onto Mark. Most of the dance team members were crowded closely around the camera now, jumping on top of each other to get a better view.

The viewing party was interrupted by two loud claps. "Okay, everyone, water break's over!" Ten called. A chorus of complaints followed his announcement. "We already gave you guys extra time, come on. Back to practice."

* * *

That night, Ten snuck out as Ladybug to tell Ninetales and Triple Threat (Yuta and Taeyong, respectively) about Operation Light This Motherfucker Up. Having known both of them for a while, he knew where they lived, and he knew that they would probably still be home on a Friday night.

Unfortunately, once he'd dealt with those two, he hit a roadblock: he had no idea where to find Donghyuck. After all, he'd never really needed to find Donghyuck before. Usually Donghyuck found him, and usually it was in the middle of an akuma battle where Ten would rather Donghyuck stay far, far away.

He briefly entertained the idea of just waiting and seeing if Donghyuck would show up to try and interview him, but he had no idea how long that might take or if Donghyuck would show up at all. Instead, he decided to message Chat to see if he knew anything. It was usually him that carried Donghyuck to safety and occasionally persuaded him to stand down, so he might know something that Ten didn't.

**your favorite cat**

**best b:** hey chat do you happen to know where I could find donghyuck?

Ten waited on the rooftop for a few minutes before receiving an answer.

**your favorite cat:** Not sure if he'll be there right now, but I know his address! Carried him back home once after an akuma attack.

**your favorite cat:** If you're trying to be sneaky though that's probably not the move since his house has security cameras.

Ten sighed. Figured. Rich people and their security systems.

**best b:** okay thanks I'll figure something out!

He considered messaging one of Donghyuck's friends to ask where he was, but he knew it would look suspicious if Ladybug showed up when Ten was asking for his whereabouts. Instead, he tried to be more subtle.

**i am the sheep**

**captain #2:** my baby yangyangggg <3

**captain #2:** what are u doing on this fine friday night

**captain #2:** how does it feel being a freshman??

**i am the sheep:** why r u texting me

**i am the sheep:** dont u hav college apps to be working on

**captain #2:** UGH don't remind me

**captain #2:** can't i just want to talk to my favorite freshie?

**i am the sheep:** no

**i am the sheep:** anyways gtg

**captain #2:** ?????

...Well. That was a bust. Unfortunately, Ten did not make a habit of associating with freshmen, so it would be weird if he suddenly messaged one of them. The only other person who could possibly be useful was Mark.

**markus lee**

**ten:** yoooo mark!! 

**ten:** wanna get late-night dessert

**ten:** I'll pay

**markus lee:** I would but I'm out with friends right now :(((

**ten:** ooh where are u??

**markus lee:** bowling alley! waiting for my turn since there are so many of us and we're cheap so we only got two lanes haha

**ten:** oh ok well have fun!!

With that, Ten put his phone away, found an empty side street, and detransformed. It'd look suspicious if Ladybug was hanging all around a random bowling alley, so he made his way there as Ten and found a seat in the cafe across the street so he could keep track of when they left. He'd have to catch Donghyuck on his way home, since otherwise he'd be surrounded by his friends.

Ten sipped on his tea and tried to write his college essays on his phone as he waited. It was starting to get late, and he shifted in his seat impatiently, wondering if maybe they'd already left and he'd just missed them. However, after waiting a bit longer, he spotted the crowd of them spilling out of the bowling alley and onto the street, their faces half-illuminated by the streetlights.

He threw his cup of tea away and exited the cafe to follow Donghyuck. His shortness helped him blend in easily with the Friday night crowd of people walking around, and so he followed Donghyuck until he split away from the rest of his group to head towards his own house. Quickly, Ten ducked into an alleyway and transformed, using his yoyo to swing himself ahead so that he'd be in Donghyuck's path.

"Ladybug!" 

Sure enough, Donghyuck had spotted him, and was taking pictures with his phone. Ten waved from where he'd stopped on top of a building. "Hey, Donghyuck."

"Ladybug, could you— woah!" Donghyuck yelled, as Ten swung down, grabbed him around the waist, and carried him up high to another rooftop, one that was further away from the ground and difficult to spot. Donghyuck immediately stumbled backwards after being set down, hands out in front of him defensively. "Woah, wait you are the real Ladybug, right? Did I do something wrong? There isn't an akuma attack right now, right?"

Ten rolled his eyes. "No, you're not in trouble or anything. I was looking for you, actually. I wanted to ask a favor."

"...A favor? You do realize how suspicious that sounds, right? Are you sure you're the real Ladybug?"

Ten groaned. "Yes, I'm the real Ladybug!"

"Then prove it!"

"Ugh, I don't know... Let me see, last akuma attack I whisked you to safety after the akuma almost pincered you and I told you that I didn't want to see you become fish food. Is that good enough for you?"

Donghyuck relaxed. "Okay, okay. But then why were you looking for me?"

"First, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this. This is top-secret hero business, okay, kid?" Donghyuck nodded eagerly, his eyes wide.

"Okay." Ten took a deep breath, and began to explain.

* * *

**your favorite cat**

**best b:** so I may have just agreed to a ladyblog exclusive interview

**your favorite cat:** LOL REALLY?? What happened?? Haven't you been super against this the past few years?? 

**your favorite cat:** Why the change of heart? :O

**best b:** I felt bad since I feel like we're putting him in more danger by involving him

**best b:** so he guilt-tripped me into agreeing to the interview 

**best b:** so uhhh I hope you're available next friday?? if not then we can reschedule

**your favorite cat:** Next Friday sounds purrfect ;3 See you then, bugaboo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My inner middle schooler personally finds it very funny that Johnny/Chat is calling Hawkmoth a motherfucker. also, let me know you feel about all the texting I've included here haha I think it's very difficult to guess at what their texting voices might sound like and trying to figure out how to write their texting styles reminds me of my good old Homestuck days  
> also I know the superhero names might sound kind of silly LMAO but in my defense it's hard to come up with good superhero names... if you have any suggestions for hero names for any of the other miraculouses feel free to drop a comment!! but yeah thank you for reading and have a nice day :) here's to 2021 hopefully being better than 2020.


	5. stay gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of October is nearing, which means Halloween, All Saints' Day, and college application deadlines. Stress ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! it's been a while since the last update; i've been working on another fic which is also turning out to be quite long, but i'm very excited for it! it's a hunger games AU so i hope yall look forward to it :)
> 
> anyways, I recently decided to change one thing about the lore in this AU; I figured that since I'm writing this I can do whatever I want, which means I can make it so that the powers make more sense/are more balanced. this is a small change, but basically I'm making it so that instead of Ladybug throwing up the Lucky Charm to reverse the damage, Chat has to destroy the Lucky Charm: after all, what is created should be destroyed, so that it doesn't break like the laws of the universe and conservation of matter and all that, and it really bothers me how in canon Ladybug just... throws the Lucky Charm and it magically turns into butterflies??? and so the way it's set up in canon Ladybug is just so OP compared to Chat since she can just fix everything herself. and also, from a conceptual standpoint, it doesn't make sense: Ladybug is the power of creation, but in order to fix things, you have to be able to destroy things too. therefore, you need both Ladybug and Chat Noir to reverse the damage.
> 
> I don't think Chat necessarily has to use Cataclysm to destroy the Lucky Charm, because I think that'd be inconvenient, so he could destroy the object either with his claws or his baton, although if it was something really hard to break he could just use Cataclysm. the important part is that he's the one who breaks it. once he breaks it, it just kinda crumbles to dust magically and does the magical whoosh and fixes everything.
> 
> I've updated the notes at the beginning of the work to reflect this change, but figured I should put it here too for those of you who have already read the beginning! and thank you all for reading and experiencing this wild ride of a fic with me <3 I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

It was now the weekend before November 1st, and Ten was very, very stressed.

It'd been a little over a month since they'd finished preparing for Operation Light This Motherfucker Up, but during that time they hadn't encountered an akuma that would be good to run their plan against. They'd all either been too powerful or had no potential minions under their control, and Ten was starting to get restless and a little bit paranoid. Did Hawkmoth know about their plan, despite their precautions? Was he purposefully sending akumas that would make it difficult for them to put their plan in action? What were the odds that out of the many akumas they'd faced in the past month, none of them were suitable?

Chat kept insisting that they just had to be patient and wait until they got lucky, but Ten didn't quite believe it. All this waiting around made him feel like he was back to square one again.

He didn't even have time to get too stressed about all that, though, because he had college applications to do! Portfolios to figure out! And he needed to get it all done before Halloween, because there was a pretty good chance there would be an akuma either on Halloween or on All Saints' Day (or both), and if there was he would need to fight it instead of last-minute working on college applications.

Right now, he was bingewatching videos of people talking about their portfolios on Youtube instead of actually working on his own portfolio. Honestly, what was he thinking? How could he possibly expect to become a fashion designer if he couldn't even get his portfolio together? It definitely wasn't too late to start thinking about a career change. Maybe he could be a dance teacher. Or a stripper. He did take a pole dancing class once...

"Ten!"

He jolted up in his seat from where he'd been slouched over in front of his computer screen. "Yeah?" He answered.

"You've been zoning out." Tikki admonished, zooming in circles in front of his laptop screen. His eyes struggled to follow the blur of motion. "Either wake up, or go to sleep!"

Ten glanced at the clock absentmindedly. Oh yeah, it was getting pretty late. "I need to finish my portfolio, though..."

"You can finish it tomorrow!" Tikki insisted. "And you also need to ask Johnny to take pictures of your designs for you."

Shit. Yeah, that was definitely something he needed to do. Knowing how Johnny's schedule was, if Ten didn't ask soon he ran the risk of Johnny not being available. 

"Okay, okay, I'll go to sleep now." He said, shutting down his laptop and heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth. "Remind me to ask Johnny tomorrow!"

* * *

When Ten got to school the next morning, Johnny and Doyoung weren't there yet, but Taeyong was already in his seat.

"Ten!" Taeyong called as Ten walked over to sit down next to him. "Do you wanna have a Halloween sleepover this year?"

Ah, fuck. Ten should've known this was coming. He and Taeyong used to have Halloween sleepovers every year as an excuse to watch scary movies together, but for the past two years Ten had found an excuse to get out of it because he knew it'd be hard to sneak out as Ladybug if they were having a sleepover. Taeyong had almost found him out on Halloween three years ago— he'd transformed in his room because the balcony was too risky at the moment, and Taeyong had woken up just a second after. Ten had spun some excuse about how Ladybug was there because Ten had gotten taken by the akuma, and then hightailed it out of there before Taeyong's sleep-clouded brain could become suspicious.

Unfortunately, with all the recent stress, Ten had forgotten to come up with a good excuse for why he couldn't sleep over. "Uh, I don't know, Taeyong..." He responded slowly, searching his brain for a plausible excuse. "It's just that I'm so stressed with college apps and all..."

Taeyong's face fell. "I know you're really busy, Ten... but it's our last year! And we're probably going to end up at different colleges, so it's our last chance to have a proper Halloween sleepover."

Fuck, Ten hated seeing Taeyong sad. And he was right— it was their last year together before they parted ways. This would be the last chance in a long while for them to have a Halloween sleepover, to just hang out like they used to. Even though he saw Taeyong almost every day, his heart ached all of a sudden with the feeling of missing him, thinking about how in a year he wouldn't get to have this. And besides, how long had it been since they'd really, properly spent time together, when they weren't studying or practicing or working on something?

"You're right." Ten said with a smile. "My house or yours?"

"Your house, of course. What's the point of having a Halloween sleepover if I can't stuff myself with sweets?"

At that moment, Johnny and Doyoung walked in, sliding into their seats in front of Ten and Taeyong.

"Yo, were you talking about Halloween?" Johnny asked excitedly, turning around in his seat to face them. "I love Halloween!"

Doyoung laughed and rolled his eyes. "This again? Yes, Johnny, we get it, you're from Chicago where they actually celebrate Halloween properly and kids go trick-or-treating, and you still remember that one house that gives out the big Hershey's chocolate bars, blah blah blah. You talk about it all the time."

"Not all the time! Just around Halloween time!" Johnny protested.

"You literally sent me a spooky scary skeletons meme on October 1st."

"Yeah, because October 1st is when you can start talking about Halloween!"

Taeyong laughed. "Doyoung is just annoyed because he's scared of horror movies and jumpscares."

"No, I just think they're stupid! Why would anyone want to be creeped out?"

Ten looked on amusedly as Taeyong and Doyoung began to bicker about horror movies and the merits of celebrating Halloween. He then glanced over at Johnny, who raised his eyebrows and gestured to Taeyong and Doyoung's heated discussion with a shrug.

"Oh, by the way, Johnny! I've been meaning to ask you, are you available anytime this week to take pictures for my portfolio?"

Johnny's face lit up. "Are you done with your pieces? I'm so excited to see them! Hold on, though, let me check my calendar." He pulled out his phone and navigated to his calendar app, which Ten could see was filled with neat, color-coded boxes. Truly a man after his own heart. (People having their shit together was attractive, okay?)

"Hmm..." Johnny began, frowning down at his calendar. "I mean, I don't technically have too much going on this week, but that's because my father made sure my schedule would be clear enough to work on college apps. So the chances of him letting me help you out are low, unless I've already submitted my apps..." He trailed off into thought. 

Ten's heart sank. Fuck, he definitely shouldn't have procrastinated on it. "Ah, that's okay, I know you're really busy!"

"This might be kind of last minute for you, but I could come over on Halloween right after school? I'm pretty much done with my applications, I've just been procrastinating on clicking submit just in case I find something to fix last-minute, and my dad wanted me to submit two days early anyways since he's afraid that the website will crash. So if I submit on Wednesday, my father would probably let me come over on Thursday."

Halloween would definitely be cutting it close, but what other choice did Ten have? And besides, he could get everything else done, so all he'd need to do would be to upload some pictures.

"Okay, that sounds great!" Ten said with a relieved smile. "Thank you so much!"

Johnny smiled back. "No problem, Ten."

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur of essay-editing, napping during class from sleep deprivation, and stress-eating cookies. By the time Thursday rolled around, Ten was pretty confident that he was done with everything except his portfolio, and he felt marginally more functional in school that day.

Thankfully, Johnny had gotten permission from Nathalie to help Ten with his portfolio, so he followed Ten after school to the bakery. 

"Okay, so," Ten said, leading Johnny to the living room. "I moved the sofa so that this wall here is clear, and I figured we can put everything in front of it?"

Johnny nodded, surveying the room. "Yeah, looks good!"

"Great!" said Ten a bit awkwardly, getting flustered. "Uh, so here's my first design." He ran over to a mannequin he'd set up in the corner and picked it up to lug it over to the wall. He kept his eyes trained on the mannequin as he nervously rearranged the clothing to lay how he wanted it to, before stepping back and taking a look at Johnny to see what he thought.

"Dude, this is awesome!" Johnny exclaimed with a smile.

"You're not just saying that because you're my friend, right?" Ten asked, just to make sure.

"Of course not! In my very professional opinion, this is seriously really cool. I would wear this!"

Ten snorted. "I feel like the bar for that is a bit low though, considering the fact that you've worn some strange things."

"Hey!" Johnny protested. "That was one time! And it's not like I had much say in it, I just wear whatever they tell me to."

Ten raised his eyebrows. "Okay, Mr. Model Extraordinaire." He said with a teasing grin. "Besides, I guess nobody can be perfect. Gabriel Seo's End Of The World 2012 Special Collection is the one flaw that makes him human."

Johnny laughed dryly. "Believe me, he has many more flaws than that." He paused for a moment, as if he was going to elaborate, before shaking his head and switching topics. "Anyways, let me set up my camera. Oh, and can you turn on the lights?"

While Johnny looked through the camera and finished setting up, Ten went back downstairs to grab some snacks for them: some slightly-burnt pastries and a bowl of blackberries. Johnny usually didn't indulge in pastries when he came over, but Ten was determined to make him eat something, so he brought up the bowl of blackberries and set it deliberately on the table next to Johnny.

"Hey, I brought some snacks for us."

Johnny looked over at the bowl and gasped dramatically. "You brought fruit? For me? I feel honored."

"As you should." Ten huffed. "Which means you should eat it. You don't eat enough!"

Johnny laughed. "You sound like Doyoung! But okay, okay, I'll eat them." He acquiesced, reaching over to pop one in his mouth.

"Ugh, please never compare me to Doyoung ever again." Ten replied. 

They got back to work, with Johnny taking photos and eating through the bowl of blackberries during the breaks in between mannequin changes. During one such break where Ten was trying to drape a scarf perfectly, his phone rang with a call from his mom.

"Hey," Ten said to Johnny. "My mom just called and said there's fresh pumpkin pie downstairs. Do you want some?"

Johnny's face lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, want me to go get some for you?"

"Of course! It's Halloween, how could I resist pumpkin pie?"

The two of them ended up temporarily putting the photography on hold in favor of eating their slices of pumpkin pie. Although Ten's brain was screaming at him to finish their work first, Johnny had just looked so happy at the prospect of pumpkin pie that he couldn't bring himself to get them back on track.

"This is so good, holy shit. Tell your parents that I love them for this."

Ten laughed. "You can go downstairs and tell them yourself!"

Johnny shook his head. "If I do that they'll just tempt me into eating more pie."

"It's Halloween, Johnny!" Ten exclaimed. "You're allowed to eat as much pie as you want."

Johnny considered it for a moment. "You know what? You're right. It's Halloween." He agreed with a grin.

* * *

After another slice of pie, they wrapped up the shoot. Johnny thanked Ten's parents profusely for the pie as he left, the bakery door jingling shut behind him.

Ten saw Johnny off at the front door, then began preparing materials for the sleepover: gathering snacks, bringing out the pillows and blankets from the closet, and setting up his laptop for the movies. He still felt nervous because he hadn't turned his portfolio in yet, but he knew Johnny needed to go home and upload the photos before he could do anything about it.

He was staring anxiously at his computer to wait for Johnny's email when Taeyong came in.

"Ten!" He exclaimed, draping himself over Ten's shoulders in a hug. "Still working on your portfolio?"

"Yeah," sighed Ten. "Well, I'm pretty much done. Just gotta wait for Johnny to send over the pictures. But once that's done, I'm all yours." He said with a grin, turning to look at Taeyong.

Taeyong beamed. "I'm so excited! It's been way too long since we've done something like this. Don't forget about me here when you're all the way over in New York!"

Ten shook his head. "I don't even know if I'm going to get to go to New York yet! And besides, even if I get in, I don't know if I'd go. It's expensive, and I don't know if I'd be able to get scholarship money or something."

Taeyong nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, that sucks. Sounds like a headache, honestly. I'm glad I'm just staying in Paris."

"You're just glad because Doyoung is planning on staying in Paris too." Ten teased.

Taeyong shoved him away. "Ugh, shut up! Besides, I don't know for sure if Doyoung is staying. He was looking at some schools in Korea the other day... I know he's planning on going to law school, and I think one of his cousins works at a law firm there."

Ten hummed in thought. "Have you thought about going back to Korea?"

Taeyong shrugged. "I don't know, honestly. The problem is, I'm not totally sure what I want to do yet. If I decided to pursue dance, then Korea might be a better bet, with the K-pop industry and all that, but I was also thinking of going into education or maybe vet school..."

"Well, whatever you do, I'm sure you'll be amazing at it," said Ten firmly.

Taeyong laughed shyly. "You can't know that for certain."

"I do know for certain, because I know you," Ten replied, grabbing Taeyong by the shoulder and staring him in the eyes. "You're gonna be amazing, okay?"

Taeyong rolled his eyes and pushed Ten's hand off his shoulder with a smile. "Okay. Give me a hug?"

Ten nodded and shuffled closer, wrapping an arm around Taeyong and tugging him into his side. "Wanna watch a movie now?"

"Of course." Taeyong responded with a grin.

* * *

Johnny woke up feeling pretty alright, considering the fact that it was a day of mourning. He mentally thanked Hawkmoth for not disrupting his sleep with an akuma attack and went downstairs for breakfast, where his father was at the breakfast table for once. Usually Gabriel was done with breakfast long before Johnny ate, but he must've slept in this morning since he had the day off.

"Good morning, father," greeted Johnny, bowing as he entered the room.

His father bowed his head in response. "Good morning, Youngho."

Johnny did his best not to make any noise as he pulled out his chair on the opposite side of the long table and sat down. The room was quiet for a few moments, save for the sounds of chewing and the clink of chopsticks against the rim of the bowl.

"Nathalie tells me you've submitted your college applications."

Johnny swallowed before responding. "Yes."

"How are you feeling about them?"

Johnny paused to think of an adequate response. "I'm feeling alright. It's hard to know what these schools are looking for, but I think I'm satisfied with my application."

Gabriel nodded. "The regular decision round is due on January 1st, correct?"

"Yeah, most of them are."

There was a pause as Gabriel chewed on his food. "Make sure to have your first drafts done by next month, then, so I can have someone look at them."

Johnny nodded. "I will."

"Good."

The two of them continued to eat in silence for the next few minutes. As each minute passed, Johnny felt his nerves rising, unsure of how to break the silence and address the elephant in the room. Surely his father would bring it up? After all, they were eating breakfast together for the first time in a while. Maybe it was a sign.

A few more minutes passed, and Gabriel was showing no signs of wanting to bring up the topic. His breakfast was almost done. Finally, Johnny gathered up the courage to speak. "Are you coming with me to visit Mom's grave today?"

Gabriel's head jerked up sharply at the question. "You know I can't, Youngho," he said dismissively, before turning back to his food.

Johnny took a deep breath to try and calm the frustration that was starting to rise. "Why can't you? I don't understand. You always say that you can't."

"I just can't, Youngho."

Johnny sighed. "Look, don't you think Mom would want you to visit? To pay your respects? It's been three years already and you haven't even visited once."

"You just don't understand."

"You're right, I don't understand!" Johnny exclaimed. "So help me understand! Why can't you just visit her? Do you think you're the only one who misses her? I loved her, too!"

Gabriel huffed and stood up, his chair nearly toppling over from the force he used to push himself away from the table. "There's no point in visiting her grave." He turned to walk out of the room.

"What do you mean there's no point?" Johnny yelled. "Of course there's a point! Why won't you let yourself grieve properly instead of shutting yourself in your office all day?"

"Youngho, I can't—"

"Why can't you?!"

"Because she's not dead!" Gabriel roared. His eyes widened in shock at his outburst, before his face closed off again. "I can't accept it."

Johnny shook his head, breathing heavily. "She is dead, whether you like it or not! We were both there when they pulled the plug!"

Gabriel made for the door, pulling it open. "I told you, you wouldn't understand." He said with finality, exiting the room.

Johnny ran across the room and followed after him. "Look, I had a hard time accepting it too! That first year she was in a coma, I kept waiting for her to wake up. And even after they pulled the plug, I kept going to the hospital and expecting to see her there." His father kept walking, showing no response. "But she's gone, father. Even before they pulled the plug, she was gone." His father was heading up the stairs now, towards his office.

"Mom would want you to mourn her and move on," Johnny pleaded to his father's rigid back. "She wouldn't want you to lock yourself in your office all day." They were approaching the office, now. "Please. Just come with me and visit."

Gabriel shook his head as they reached his office door. He sighed and turned to face Johnny. "There's no point, Youngho." He said hollowly. "I won't stop you from going. But there's no point. She wouldn't hear you, anyways." He entered his office and locked the door behind him.

Johnny stared at the closed door for a few seconds, trying to decipher the look on his father's face right before he'd gone in. He turned when he heard footsteps behind him, coming up the stairs.

"Just let him be," said Nathalie. "You know it's been hard on him."

Johnny breathed deeply and tried to relax. "I know. But it's been three years, and he won't even acknowledge it."

Nathalie walked over and gently rested a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go talk to him," she reassured. "In the meantime, go visit your mother. The car is already waiting for you."

Johnny sighed. "Thanks, Nathalie."

He went downstairs and got in the car. Thankfully, he didn't need to say anything; his bodyguard knew where he wanted to go. He made a quick stop to buy a pot of golden chrysanthemums before the car pulled up to the cemetery.

"Thanks," he said to his bodyguard as he got out. His bodyguard grunted in response, like he always did, but Johnny could tell by now that this was a sympathetic grunt. "You can go now, I'll just take a bus back. I'm sure you've lost someone, too." The bodyguard hesitated for a bit, before nodding and backing out of the parking lot. Johnny sighed and turned towards the rows of gravestones, many of which already had flowers on them. There were a few other families there paying their respects, and he tried to avoid them as he made his way towards his mother's gravestone.

He set the pot of chrysanthemums gently on the grass and kneeled in front of her gravestone. "Hey, mom." He said quietly. "I miss you every day." He began to talk, the stories spilling out of him in a rush: about how stressed he'd been about college apps, about how uncertain he was about his future, about how school had been and how his friends were doing. He imagined that she was listening up above somewhere, nodding along and excited to hear about his life and his new friends that she'd never gotten to meet. By the time he had run out of things to say, his throat was hoarse and his eyes were red.

"So, uh," he said, clearing his throat and finally getting up to brush off the dirt from his knees. "That's what my life has been lately. I hope you're doing well up there. I love you." He stared at the gravestone for a moment longer, his eyes tracing out the letters engraved elegantly in the stone, before he turned away and walked back to the parking lot.

On the way out, his heart stopped for a second as he spotted a figure that looked just like his mother— until he recognized Donghyuck standing beside her and realized it was just his Aunt Amelie. Of course they had come to visit too. "Johnny hyung!" Donghyuck called. 

Johnny mustered up a smile. "Hey, Donghyuck. Here to visit?" 

Donghyuck nodded. "Yup."

"It's good to see you, Johnny." Amelie said with a smile. "It's been so long since we've had dinner together."

Johnny nodded awkwardly and smiled politely in return. "Yes, it's been a while."

"Has your father been doing all right? He still refuses to answer my calls, that bastard. You know, to tell you the truth," she said quietly, leaning in. "As much as he made Emilie happy, I never really liked him very much. Has he still not visited her grave?"

His smile turned into a slight grimace. "Ah, yes, he's been doing... as well as he can, I suppose. He still says that he can't bring himself to visit. But, uh... he's trying." He said a bit lamely, feeling the strange need to defend his father against the criticism.

Amelie nodded. "Well, I guess we're all trying, aren't we?" she said with a sympathetic smile. "Anyways, I won't keep you any longer. But if you'd ever like to talk, I'm here, alright? Even if Gabriel refuses to see me, I'm still your aunt."

Johnny nodded, smiling a bit more genuinely now. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Aunt Amelie."

He let out a deep sigh as he exited the cemetery and made his way to the bus stop. Although his aunt had meant well (mostly), her grudge against Gabriel had reminded Johnny of his own argument with his father that morning. Just thinking about it made his head spin.

He decided to call Jaehyun while waiting for the bus to arrive.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jaehyun." Johnny said tiredly. "Could you break into your dad's wine cooler for me?"

Jaehyun hummed. "Yeah, of course. You coming over right now?"

"Yeah, I'm waiting at the bus stop."

There was a pause, and the sounds of shuffling and movement on the other end. "Do you want to get, like, drunk? Totally smashed? What’s your damage?"

Johnny thought about it for a second. He did want to get drunk, but— fuck, there was probably going to be an akuma today. And it would be very bad if he was drunk for that. "Tipsy at most. I have something I need to do later today."

"What do you even need to do? Your dad isn't making you work or anything, is he?"

Johnny shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. Don't worry. It's just, like, an errand I need to run." He said vaguely.

"Okay." Jaehyun paused, but didn't push farther to ask what kind of errand Johnny could possibly need to run on a day like today. Johnny appreciated that about him: Jaehyun was good at letting things go. "Wanna tell me why you're coming over to drink wine in the middle of the day, though?"

Johnny sighed. "Argued with my father this morning."

"Oh shit, dude. I see." Jaehyun paused for a moment. "Wanna call Doyoung too? Get the original squad together?"

"He doesn't really like wine, though."

"Dude, it doesn't matter if he likes wine or not. If you're having an emotional crisis and want him there, then he'll be there. Besides, I have soju too."

Johnny sighed. "Okay." He looked up upon hearing the screeching of wheels coming to a stop. "My bus is here, so I'm gonna go now."

"Okay. Just let yourself up when you get here. See you soon."

* * *

Johnny was slightly tipsy and halfway through his second glass of wine when the akuma alarm sounded.

"Oh shit," said Jaehyun. "We should probably get to the basement."

Johnny sighed, feeling lethargic. "I don't wanna get up."

Doyoung, who hadn't drunk much yet, stood up and clapped his hands. "Come on, guys, let's go! I'm not in the mood to be zapped by magic today!" He grabbed Johnny's arm and tried to pull him up. "Let's go!"

Johnny groaned and managed to push himself up to standing. "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna wake myself up first." He slapped himself in the face a couple of times, willing his brain to respond to the sound of the alarm and give him the adrenaline rush he needed to be Chat Noir.

"Don't be ridiculous, we're not leaving you here," Doyoung insisted, grabbing Johnny's wrist with one hand and Jaehyun's wrist with the other. He pulled them along towards the doors. "It's almost like you want to be attacked! I'm concerned about your self-preservation instinct." He let go of both of them to open the door. "Okay, looks clear. Let's make a break for it."

"Ah, I really need to go to the bathroom though," said Johnny, trying to come up with an excuse to separate him.

"There are bathrooms in the basement," Jaehyun replied, giving Johnny a look. "You've literally been there before."

"Right, right! Sorry, just forgot. Okay, uh, let's go then."

The three of them ran down the stairs and across the main hall to get to the basement stairwell. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, as something smashed through the front doors and sent chunks of marble flying their way.

"I am the Blacklister! Here to take revenge!"

The chandelier came crashing down. Someone in the lobby screamed. In the ensuing chaos, Johnny was able to duck around a corner into an empty hallway and transform. 

He took a peek around the corner to figure out what had caused the destruction. The akuma appeared to be a ten foot tall man who was currently smashing through the main hall, his stomps cracking the tile underneath where he stepped. He was carrying a large server plate, which he used to hit a few people who were trying to run away; the people kept running, but seeming to be... taking out their phones? They were yelling something, but Johnny couldn't make it out clearly from where he was still hiding.

Oh well. He could deal with fighting aggressive, oversized akumas. They were kind of fun, actually, because their repetitive yelling and caveman grunts made him feel a bit better about his own intelligence.

"Hey! Over here!" He called, distracting attention away from the civilians. The man responded by throwing his server plate at him, and Johnny quickly jumped out of the way. The plate magically zoomed back into the akuma's hand.

"Wow, aren't you happy to see me?" He quipped, laughing at his own joke. He vaulted himself up onto a rooftop and looked around to see if Ladybug was anywhere nearby. He couldn't see him, but he could see the trail of destruction that the akuma had left behind. The Blacklister seemed to have headed straight for the hotel, not stopping to smash any other buildings along the way. 

When he looked back down, the akuma still seemed to be smashing through the building, trying to throw his plate at anyone in the vicinity.

"So, Mr. Blacklister, what do you have against this perfectly nice hotel?"

The akuma responded by throwing the plate at him. It missed, but it knocked off a chunk of the chimney behind him.

"I mean, I don't know if you've been to the restaurant on the second floor, but they have really good eclairs. You should try one!"

This seemed to make the Blacklister more angry, and he doubled the ferocity of his attacks. 

"Oh, I get it!" Johnny exclaimed. "You work there or something, don't you? What with the uniform and all."

The man lets out a frustrated roar. "Just give me your miraculous!"

"Man, it's weird how the akuma magic works for your costume though," Johnny continued, undeterred as he dodged the plate. "It took me a while to recognize the uniform. Like, why are you entirely red and purple and blue now? Does Hawkmoth decide the color scheme? Or does this reflect, like, your inner costume desire?"

He felt a whoosh of wind beside him, and turned to see Ladybug had landed on the rooftop next to him. 

"Hey, bugaboo!" He greeted cheerily. "I don't know if you heard me earlier, but apparently this guy's a waiter here. Wanna place bets on why he got akumatized? I'm guessing he got fired."

Ladybug laughed. "That's so predictable, though. Hm, maybe someone yelled at him? Skipped over him for a promotion? Or maybe there's a secret drug smuggling ring here, and he's trying to bust it!"

Johnny snorted. "Where did that come from? Are you suggesting that our fabulous mayor is participating in illegal activity?"

Ladybug shrugged. "Hey, just trying to think outside the box! Maybe it's not even the mayor. Maybe it's his son that's the head of all this," he suggested with a conspiratorial grin.

Johnny nearly toppled over laughing at that. "Paris' golden boy Jung Jaehyun, running a drug smuggling ring? No way!"

The akuma chose that moment to start attacking again, so they both dove out of the way, Johnny stumbling a little as he threw himself into a forward roll to break his fall.

"What, are you a Jung Jaehyun fan?" Ladybug teased. "Also, any idea where the akuma is?"

"I'm thinking either the name tag or the piece of paper in his pocket, but I'm not sure!" Johnny called back. "And why, are you jealous? Or are you yourself a Jung Jaehyun fan?"

Ladybug shrugged. "Jung Jaehyun is cute, but I'm more of a Johnny Seo fan," he said with a laugh. 

Johnny's heart leapt to his throat, and he turned around to look at Ladybug and try to read his face. "Hold up, what?"

Ladybug was grinning, but Johnny couldn't tell if that meant Ladybug was messing with him or not. However, that grin quickly morphed to alarm. "Chat, watch out!"

In his momentary distraction, he failed to notice the giant server plate coming towards him from behind. There was no time to dodge, so Johnny just sighed and accepted his fate, trusting that Ladybug would fix everything.

The plate seemed to go right through him, before rebounding back into the Blacklister's hand. All of a sudden, Johnny felt extremely angry at the hotel.

"Fuck this hotel!" He yelled. "This hotel sucks!"

He suddenly felt the need to take out his phone and leave a bad review on Yelp. That would show them! In fact, he should create multiple accounts to leave bad reviews!

"Chat? Are you okay? What are you doing with your phone?"

"I'm leaving a bad review on this piece of shit establishment." He announced proudly. "This hotel will not survive the onslaught of my wrath!"

"You can leave all the bad reviews you want later! We need to defeat the Blacklister and stop him from destroying the hotel!"

Johnny seemed to consider this for a moment, looking at the wreckage around them and the Blacklister's continued destruction of the hotel. Then he shook his head and scowled. "Well, it's the hotel's fault that it's so susceptible to destruction! If the hotel was built better, this wouldn't have been a problem," he said with a roll of his eyes. "In fact, if the hotel hadn't fucking collapsed, then I would've been able to finish my glass of wine! I was having a nice time unless all this happened!" He yelled angrily, kicking at a piece of rubble.

"You were drinking?!" Ladybug yelled incredulously. "I was wondering why you seemed weird! Why would you drink when you know there's a high chance of an akuma attack on All Saints' Day?"

"Because it's All Saints' Day! Because I miss my mom!" He yelled back. "You know what, I bet this fucking hotel is the reason my mom died! I bet they poisoned her or something!" He slammed his baton onto the roof where he was standing, breaking off more chunks that fell into the main hall below.

"Okay, okay! But hey, if you help me defeat Blacklister, you can destroy the hotel yourself instead of letting him have all the fun!" Ladybug said, trying to reason with him.

Johnny shrugged. "I'd rather write Yelp reviews, anyways! Gotta use my reputation for something, you know? If Chat Noir says this hotel is awful, then they'll never get any business ever again!"

Ladybug let out a frustrated noise. "Okay, fine, you can write Yelp reviews. But there are civilians in this building, Chat! If you destroy the hotel, they could get hurt and die!"

"Not my fault the hotel can't protect people!"

"But you could protect people, if you defeated the Blacklister! Your precious Jung Jaehyun is probably in that hotel somewhere, in danger!"

A look of realization flashed across Johnny's face. "Fuck, Jaehyun's in there!"

"Yeah, so help me defeat the Blacklister! Then after all this is done, you can leave all the Yelp reviews you want."

Johnny nodded. "Okay, okay," he conceded. "I guess the takedown of this shitty hotel can wait a little longer."

"Good, let's go. Lucky Charm!"

* * *

"Pound it!"

After Johnny had destroyed the Lucky Charm, the world reverted back to normal. He checked his phone and found that the thousands of negative Yelp reviews had also disappeared. "They say the internet is forever, but I guess that doesn't apply when magic is involved," he commented with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Ladybug was helping the confused man off the ground. He looked around for a moment, before realizing what had happened.

"Huh. I got akumatized, didn't I?"

Ladybug nodded. "Do you remember why?"

The man nodded, his eyes flashing with sudden anger. "Yeah, I remember why. Fucking hotel fired me, and blacklisted me from all the other hotels and restaurants in this area! Couldn't fucking bring myself to visit my pop's grave with the news."

"Woah, calm down sir. We don't want you to get akumatized again. Do you know why you got fired? Maybe you could talk it out with the hotel."

Johnny had a bad feeling about this. He vaguely recognized the man from his many visits to the hotel, and this man had always creeped him out. Plus, getting blacklisted from all the hotels in Paris? He must've done something pretty bad.

"They fired me since a bunch of bitchy waitresses filed a complaint saying that I was harassing them," he scoffed. "I barely even touched them! Can't a guy be friendly these days?"

Ladybug looked shocked. "Oh, fuck you," he spit out. "I'm sure they didn't think it was friendly if they filed a complaint about it."

"No, I bet they just wanted me out so they could get more tips." The man said snidely. "So they could just bat their eyelashes at the customers and earn more money."

Ladybug scoffed, shaking his head. "I can't fucking believe you. I—" His hands were shaking at his sides, so Johnny decided to intervene. 

"Look," Johnny said. "Even if they got rid of you, they wouldn't get more tips. The hotel would just hire someone else."

The man grumbled, but couldn't seem to come up with a rebuttal. "Well, they clearly wanted me gone!"

"They wanted you gone because you made them uncomfortable, you asshole!" exclaimed Ladybug, eyes shining with angry tears.

"Oh, so you don't believe me either? You're just as bad as the fucking hotel management!"

"You—!"

"LB, calm down!" Johnny yelled. He put an arm around Ladybug's shoulders and steered him away, leaning in close to talk to him so that the other man couldn't hear. "You can't get into a fight with him, otherwise he's going to redirect his anger at you! Which means Hawkmoth could use that to give him powers that specifically target you!"

Ladybug was breathing heavily, hands clenched into fists at his side. "I know, I know!" He huffed. "I just— I hate that we have to deal with so many bad people! And we always have to be so careful about apprehending them afterwards because that could just cause them to be akumatized again!" He kicked the ground, frustrated. "I just want them to have to deal with the consequences of their actions without worrying about whether they're going to turn into a supervillain!"

Johnny sighed. "I know." Ladybug's earrings beeped, and he glanced worriedly at the number of dots left. "Believe me, I would love to Cataclysm his dick off. But I can't. So how about this: you go home, since you're almost out of time. I'll stay here, and try to convince him that he did something wrong, or at least convince him to be less touchy in the future. And if that doesn't work, then we can let him keep being mad at the hotel, and if he gets re-akumatized we can deal with him again. Okay?"

Ladybug nodded. "Okay." He took a couple more deep breaths, closing his eyes to center himself. "Thanks, Chat." He offered Johnny a small smile. "Have fun dealing with him, then. Bug out!"

Johnny waved as Ladybug swung away, then turned back to where the man was watching them with a scowl.

"So are the rumors true, then? You and that Ladybug are homosexual for each other?"

Johnny sighed. Today was going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did some research on what people in France do for Halloween and All Saints' Day, so I hope this is accurate and doesn't offend any French people! I'm just a clueless American haha but if I've gotten anything wrong feel free to comment and correct me!


	6. monsieur rat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monsieur Rat shows up for the first time, and it seems like a perfect opportunity for Ladybug and Chat Noir to enact the plan they've been talking about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew I cranked out about half of this in a day after posting my hunger games AU, which is what i've been working on nonstop besides this!! go check that out [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29143911) if you haven't yet :)  
> anyways i hope yall enjoy this chapter :D

It was shaping up to be a nice and relaxing weekend until the akuma alarm sounded.

Ten had been doodling in his notebook when the alarm rang, startling him and causing him to draw a heavy line straight through his design. He groaned. "Why does he have to do it now? Doesn't Hawkmoth have anything better to do on the weekends?"

Tikki shrugged. "I mean, he probably has a job during the weekdays."

"Ugh," Ten said, making a face. What kind of job would a supervillain even have? He shook his head, trying to dispel the thought. He didn't want to think of Hawkmoth as an actual human being with a job. "Well, Tikki, spots on!"

He quickly checked the news broadcast for the location of the akuma. The map showed the akuma at the Louvre, and according to the news broadcast, the akuma was calling himself... Monsieur Rat?

Oh no. Did Monsieur Ramier get akumatized again, but with rats this time? Damn it, he should've guessed this would happen at some point... after all, rats weren't exactly very well-respected animals.

By the time he swung his way to the Louvre, Chat was already there waiting for him on a rooftop. Down below, the entire plaza was covered with rats, so many that you could barely see the ground. In the middle of them all was Monsieur Rat, laughing gleefully as the rats clambered on top of him and around him. Most civilians had already run away from the swarm, but there were a few who had shut themselves in buildings nearby to hide and watch the spectacle. 

"Hey bugaboo!" Chat greeted cheerfully. 

"Hey Chat! So what's the deal with Monsieur Ramier this time?"

Chat groaned. "Ugh, this is probably my fault for telling him he should befriend another type of animal. I mean, the akuma is probably in something rat-related, but I don't know what the rat equivalent of a bird whistle would be."

Ten nodded. "I mean, there aren't too many options. His costume is pretty skintight."

Chat hummed in agreement. "But you know, I think we could run our plan with this akuma. I mean, Monsieur Rat doesn't seem too different from Monsieur Pigeon. And we've beaten Monsieur Pigeon dozens of times before."

Ten gasped. "Shit, you're right! This is pretty much a perfect scenario." Ten glanced around. "Is Donghyuck anywhere nearby?"

Chat shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of, but you know him. He'll probably turn up sooner or later, especially if we drag this out so he has time to get here."

Ten nodded. "Okay. Okay. Shit, this is actually happening!" He exclaimed, his heart starting to beat faster from the adrenaline. He whirled around and clapped both of his hands on Chat's shoulders, staring him in the eye determinedly. "We are going to light this motherfucker up!"

Chat grinned back at him. "Yes we are!"

"Okay!"

"Okay!" Chat echoed.

Ten took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm going to go get Triple Threat and Ninetales. You stay here and be distracting."

"You think I'm distracting, bugaboo?" asked Chat, raising his eyebrows teasingly.

Ten groaned. "You know what I mean! I gotta go now, so go do your thing!"

Ten swung away, heading for Taeyong's house first since it was closer. Crap, he really hoped Taeyong was actually home. Landing on a roof nearby, he peeked in the window and saw Taeyong in the living room, watching the news. Hm, the living room was a little risky since anyone could walk in, but maybe he could get Taeyong's attention.

He knocked gently on the window until Taeyong noticed him, and gestured upwards in the vague direction of the bedroom. Taeyong nodded and left to go upstairs, where he opened his bedroom window to let Ten in.

"Hey Taeyong! Remember that plan I talked about?"

Taeyong nodded, eyes wide.

"Yeah, so we're going to run that now! Remember, we don't want Hawkmoth or Mayura to know you're there, so use the wind dragon right after you transform and follow the fake miraculous closely. Any questions?"

Taeyong shook his head. "No, I think I got it."

"Good. Sorry for the rush, but I need to go find Ninetales now. Bug out!"

He checked the news broadcast quickly, just in case Chat had gotten into trouble, but he seemed to be doing fine so far. After all, didn't cats like to chase after rats? Ten laughed a little at the thought. Maybe it was a good sign.

Yuta was already chilling on the rooftop of his apartment complex when Ten arrived. He waved a hand in greeting. "Hey, Ladybug! Had a feeling you might need me today."

Ten grinned. "You're right. We're going to run that plan I told you about a couple weeks ago."

Yuta nodded. "You just need me to stay invisible and track the fake miraculous, right?"

"Yup! Since you can only cast one illusion, try to save it for right after they take the fake miraculous; otherwise, you might run out of time, or someone could run into your illusion and destroy it. Oh, and since we don't want them to know you're there, it might be better if you get there as a civilian and find a hiding spot before transforming."

Yuta nodded thoughtfully and took the offered necklace, tucking it under his shirt to keep it discreet. "Okay. Anything else?"

"Give me a call when you get there, since I won't be able to see you. Once you're there, we can put things into action."

"Sure thing, Ladybug." Yuta said with an easy grin. "I'll see you at the Louvre, then."

Ten laughed, pretending to swoon. "How romantic. Well, gotta go. Bug out!"

* * *

"What took you so long?" asked Chat when he got back. "I can only stall so long without Hawkmoth getting suspicious."

"Sorry," panted Ten, out of breath from rushing back. "Their houses aren't exactly close by."

"Fair enough," said Chat with a shrug. "Anyways, your number one fanboy has arrived. He's in that store over there," Chat said.

Ten looked over at where he was gesturing and saw Donghyuck with his face smushed up against the glass. "He's going to get hurt if he stays near the window like that," he cursed.

Chat sighed, "I told him to hide behind the counter. He didn't listen, obviously."

Just then, the swarm of rats climbed their way up to the rooftop, so the two of them quickly ran to another, higher rooftop to buy themselves some more time. Ten kept glancing at his yoyo, waiting for it to ring. "Okay, let's just— act busy or something. In the meantime, we can at least figure out where the akuma is hiding."

The two of them continued avoiding the rats while trying to get close enough to Monsieur Rat to see what could possibly contain an akuma. However, it seemed that the more they waited, the more rats there were; they were swarming all over the rooftops, a wriggling, writhing mass of grey-brown fur and pink tails all climbing over and around each other.

"Scared now?" taunted Monsieur Rat gleefully. "As you can see, I'm much more powerful than before! Really, I have your suggestion to thank for that, Chat Noir— I never would've thought to befriend the rats otherwise."

Just then, Ten's yoyo started to vibrate with an incoming call. "I'm here," said Yuta.

"Okay, we're good to go," Ten said to Chat quietly. He looked over across the plaza where Donghyuck was hiding. "Now how the hell am I supposed to get over there?"

Chat shrugged. "I mean, I could try to distract them. But there are so many of them that I don't think it'd help. Honestly, I think your best bet is to just throw the box at Donghyuck as you swing across or something."

Ten nodded. "Okay. Donghyuck!" he called, swinging across the plaza to stay above the ground. "Catch!"

The box sailed through the broken glass window where Donghyuck was waiting. He caught it with a wide grin. "Don't worry Ladybug, I won't let you down!" As he said it, the rats around him began to climb on him, nails hooking into his clothing and scrabbling at his shoes to approach the box. Donghyuck made an effort to stomp on them, but the rats hissed and him and magically grew bigger. Ten gasped in alarm as one of them swiped at Donghyuck's leg; the rats were now at least a foot long, and seemed to get more dangerous as they grew.

"Ouch!" Donghyuck exclaimed as a rat scratched a line across his hand. He fumbled the box and dropped it into the mass of rats on the floor, jumping up and scrambling on top of the counter.

Ten was equal parts pleased and worried: pleased about Donghyuck's acting, and worried about the various scratch marks that must be littered all over him by now. Fortunately, once he'd dropped the box, the rats had mostly lost interest in him, letting him cower on the countertop as they chittered and shrunk back down to their usual size.

Monsieur Rat's cackling cut through the air. "Now, you see my true power!" he proclaimed, as the rats underneath him grew to an enormous size and lifted him up into the air. "This is what you get for underestimating me, Ladybug and Chat Noir. I have already taken one miraculous, and soon I will have both of yours too!" The rats surrounding Ten and Chat began to grow as well, their eyes staring menacingly at the two superheroes now standing back-to-back defensively.

Ten didn't have any time to pull the tracker out of his yoyo and check that it was working; he'd just have to trust that it was. "Shit," muttered Chat. "This is totally my fault."

Ten shook his head firmly. "There's no way you could've predicted this would happen, Chat. Right now we just need to hold on long enough for the tracker to get to Hawkmoth, and then we can kick Monsieur Rat in the ass."

Chat cracked a grin. "Alright then. What's the plan, spots-a-lot?"

"First, let's bust out of this circle of rats. Then, let's go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and stall for time until we get a call from Ninetales and Triple Threat."

Chat nodded, and the two began moving in sync, beating back the snarling rats until a pathway opened up. There were smaller rats crowded all over the rooftops, and this high up there were no places Ten could swing on his yoyo from. They couldn't run properly because it meant putting their feet into a sea of hostile rats, and it was hard to find steady footing when they landed on a rat more often than they found ground.

"Chat!" Ten called. "Your baton!"

Chat nodded, picking Ten up easily and using his baton to vault them from rooftop to rooftop. They were faster like this, since with the baton they didn't need to touch ground as often. Ten clung on to Chat and turned around to act as his eyes in the back, giving updates on the rats that were chasing them and using his yoyo to knock back any rats that got too close. Soon, they were scrambling up the Eiffel Tower, watching as the larger rats behind them fell away and failed to grip onto the increasingly narrow bars. The rats that had made it this high up were now the smaller rats, which while no less vicious, were much more manageable.

Just then, a call came in from Yuta. "Ladybug! Chat! I'm so sorry, but I lost the rat!"

Ten froze. "What?!" he exclaimed. "How?"

"It squeezed through some hole in the wall and I couldn't follow it. I think Triple Threat is still on it, though,"

"Okay," replied Ten, trying to quell the anxiety rising in him. This was okay. He planned out backup for a reason. This plan wasn't going down in flames just yet. "Okay, that's fine. Stay out of sight in case Hawkmoth gets suspicious, and find a place to detransform." 

"Got it." There was a click as the call ended. Ten quickly pulled out the tracker, and saw the little green dot blinking on the screen. "Okay. We're still okay," he said to himself.

"It'll be fine, LB," Chat reassured him. 

"I sure hope so," Ten replied with a sigh. 

"My rats have taken over the city!" Monsieur Rat declared. "You cannot stay up there forever! The longer you stay up there, the more time my rats have to spread out and take control! If you cooperate and hand over your miraculouses, I will allow the humans to keep living in a small section of the city."

Ten shook his head. "Not a chance! This city was built by humans and for humans," he retorted. 

"Rats have lived here just as long as humans have! Just because we didn't build it doesn't mean it isn't ours!"

"Why can't we coexist peacefully?" asked Chat.

"Because humans are selfish!" yelled Monsieur Rat. "Have any of the rats ever tried to kill a human? No! Yet you humans just keep trying to kill rats, when all the rats ever wanted was some food and water. The rats just want to live! Is that too much to ask?"

Chat shook his head. "No, it's not too much to ask. But becoming a supervillain isn't the right way to make that happen."

Just then, another call came in.

"I'm so sorry, but I think I lost it! Hold on," the sounds of panting came down the line, sounding as if Taeyong was running, "hold on, I'm trying to get to where I last saw it."

"What happened?" Ten asked, a feeling of dread starting to rise.

"I didn't realize that rats could freaking swim! Shit, I think it's gone now," Taeyong said, still breathing heavily. "It swam into a sewage pipe, so I turned into the water dragon to follow it, but once it came out of the sewage pipe I couldn't transform into the wind dragon again. And I couldn't transform into my regular self because there wasn't enough space, we were under some sort of building so I had to go back through the sewers to find a place where I could get out. The sewers are gross, by the way, so Hawkmoth is gonna get a box covered in shit."

Chat snorted at that. "Serves him right," he said. Ten couldn't bring himself to laugh about it, though; he had a feeling things were going downhill.

"Okay. Where are you right now? Make sure you write it down," Ten told Taeyong. "I'm going to check the tracker."

His heart dropped when he looked at the screen. There was no green dot to be found. "Fuck! It's gone!"

Chat leaned over to look at the screen. "Shit. Maybe it's underground or something? It might come back up if you wait."

Ten shook his head. "I don't know, but we can't stall any longer. Let's just get rid of Monsieur Rat, and we can check the tracking history later."

Chat nodded. "Okay. Let's kick this rat's ass."

* * *

After defeating Monsieur Rat, the four superheroes met up on a rooftop. The sun was starting to set, and the mood was too grim for even Chat Noir to try cracking any jokes.

"Okay," said Ten. "I've pulled up a map of the tracking history. There are a couple sections where it disappears and resurfaces somewhere else, probably because the rat went underground and the tracker lost signal. Then, it disappears around here, and never shows up again. Either that's Hawkmoth's lair, or it went underground again and never came back up."

Yuta squinted at the dot circled in red. "Isn't that around the rich side of town? Where all those big fancy houses are?" He snorted. "Figures Hawkmoth is a rich asshole. No wonder he has the time to do all this."

"I scoped out the location, and I didn't see anything suspicious," said Ten. "It's possible that it's well-hidden underground, but we can't just go breaking into people's homes without being sure."

"Maybe we could make this information public? So that people could keep an eye out for anyone suspicious?"

Chat shook his head. "No, that'd turn into a witch hunt. We could maybe tell Donghyuck, though," he suggested. "He lives around there."

Ten nodded. "I think that's a good idea. Is there anyone else we trust that lives around there?"

Chat laughed loudly at that, causing the rest of the group to look at him oddly. "No, I don't think so," Chat said, shaking his head. Ten frowned, but shrugged it off as just Chat being Chat.

"Alright then," said Ten, clapping his hands. He looked around at everyone else awkwardly. "Well, I guess that's it for today. Even though our plan didn't succeed, we're still closer than we were before!" He said, trying for an encouraging grin.

Chat nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's no one's fault that this plan didn't succeed. The rats just happened to get the better of us today. But we'll keep trying, and we'll unmask Hawkmoth someday for sure."

"Definitely," said Yuta with a grin. "Well, if that's all for today then I'll be heading home now. My parents are probably wondering where I went."

"Same here," said Taeyong. 

Ten nodded. "Off you go, then." Both of them didn't move for a few seconds, looking confused.

"Should we give the miraculouses back to you here?"

"Oh shit!" Ten exclaimed, smacking himself in the head for forgetting something so crucial. "Sorry, yeah, I totally forgot. Let's go find somewhere private."

After finding separate alleyways for the two of them to detransform in, Ten made his way back to the rooftop they were on before. He wasn't even sure if Chat would still be here, but he had a feeling he would.

Sure enough, Chat was lying down on the floor, spinning his baton idly as he waited. He perked up when he heard Ten approaching. "Hey, Ladybug. How you holding up?"

Ten sighed as he slumped down onto the ground next to Chat. "How do you think?" He bit back, intending to be sarcastic but falling flat.

"Let me guess... you're probably thinking this is all your fault. Which it's not, by the way. It's no one's fault except maybe Hawkmoth's," Chat said matter-of-factly, unbothered by Ten's attitude.

"But I was the one who came up with the idea! Now Hawkmoth will be onto us, he knows that we're making more active moves against him now."

Chat shrugged. "True. But it was going to happen eventually, anyways. You were right when you said that this can't go on forever."

Ten sighed. "If we'd saved the plan for a better villain then we could've ended it all today, though."

"Then if it's anyone's fault, it's mine, because I was the one who first suggested it."

"But I was the one who agreed!"

"We both agreed, Ladybug, we're a team! We make decisions together, so we shoulder the responsibility together! And we got some decent information out of this. Who knows when a better villain would've come along? We barely get any easy ones anymore."

"... True." Ten conceded reluctantly. "But the whole plan was my idea in the first place. If I'd come up with a better plan, this wouldn't have happened."

"Your plan was amazing. We just all underestimated the rats. And without your plan, we wouldn't have the information we have now."

Chat raised his eyebrows at Ten, as if to say,  _ I'd like to see you argue your way out of this one.  _ Ten huffed and turned away so he wouldn't have to look at Chat's stupidly satisfied face. "It's not like the information helps us narrow down very much, though."

"Are you kidding me? It definitely does. There aren't a whole lot of people who spend time in that section of the city," said Chat. "And even less of them are adult males with black hair and brown eyes. And out of those adult males, we've already ruled out Gabriel Seo, since he was the Collector. There can't be that many left."

Ten nodded thoughtfully. "You know what, maybe you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Chat replied with a grin. Ten couldn't help but smile back, the anxious feeling in his chest loosening slightly as he processed Chat's train of logic.

"Thanks, chaton," Ten said gratefully. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well, I'll always be here for you," Chat said with a smile. "So you'll never have to find out."

* * *

It was dark when Johnny swung his way home, windows beginning to light up as the evening approached. As he neared his house, however, he realized something was wrong— the lights were on in his room, and he was sure they'd been off when he left.

He peeked out from behind a chimney to see what was going on. Inside, his bodyguard was standing by the window, peering both ways down the street. Nathalie was by the door, talking on the phone to someone. Shit. They must've realized he was missing.

He ducked into an alley a few blocks away and detransformed, making sure Plagg was securely hidden in his hoodie pocket before he walked to his house as casually as he could manage. The moment his bodyguard spotted him walking down the street, he ran downstairs to drag him inside, depositing him on a couch in front of a disappointed Nathalie.

"Wait here," she said sternly. "Your father will be down in a second." 

Johnny wasn't sure if he should even be surprised at this point. Of course the first time he saw his father in several days would be for a reprimand.

"He's not in a very good mood right now," Nathalie added. "Things have not gone well for him today, so try not to upset him further."

Johnny nodded. He waited nervously as his father descended the marble steps, shoes clicking smartly against the tile. "Youngho," Gabriel said, coming to a stop in front of Johnny. "Where have you been? Out with those friends of yours again?"

Johnny shook his head, not wanting to throw any of his friends under the bus. "I was just at a, uh, underground music concert."

"Underground music concert?" Gabriel repeated distastefully. "And where did you get the idea to go to such an event?"

"A flyer I saw on the street. I thought it looked interesting, so I wanted to go."

"What about all the other times you snuck out?"

"Huh?" Johnny asked, trying to play dumb.

"I checked back on the security camera feeds for your room. They've been looping for a while now, which suggests that you've done this more than once."

Fuck. This was really bad. "I don't sneak out that often. I just like going to concerts occasionally."

Gabriel stared down at Johnny from behind the rims of his glasses. "Are you sure you don't have some secret girlfriend or something?"

Johnny laughed nervously. "What? No! Don't worry, I know what a PR nightmare that would cause." What he was actually doing would probably cause an even bigger PR nightmare, but his father didn't need to know that.

Gabriel frowned. "Alright. Nevertheless, you're to stop sneaking out or I'll be forced to withdraw you from school. You shouldn't be going to music concerts now, when you're in your senior year of high school and you have college applications to finish."

Johnny bowed his head. "Yes, I understand. It was irresponsible of me."

"Since security cameras are clearly not enough to enforce this," said Gabriel. "You must wear this watch at all times." He produced something that looked similar to a smart watch, but smaller, less fancy, and less breakable-looking. "It will constantly monitor your location and alert me when you step out of bounds. In addition, it will alert me when it is taken off."

"What?!" Johnny exclaimed, eyes wide as he gazed at the innocuous-looking watch in front of him. "But—"

"It is unsafe for you to be wandering around the city unattended," said Gabriel sternly. "I understand that you would like to have fun, and I'm willing to be more permissive about letting you go out with friends if you ask me ahead of time. But I will not tolerate more sneaking out."

Johnny sighed. "Yes, father." If his schedule as Chat Noir weren't so unpredictable, he might have actually thought it was a fair deal. After all, his father was just trying to keep him safe, and he really had been letting Johnny hang out with friends more often until college application season hit.

Johnny took the watch reluctantly and put it on, immediately hating the way it seemed to press into his skin, like it was confining him. "Good," said Gabriel. "Now, are you hungry? Dinner is ready, and I don't have any further schedules for the day."

Johnny looked up at him, surprised. Even Nathalie looked like she had been expecting a longer lecture. "Dinner sounds nice."

Gabriel nodded, turning to head to the dining room. "We're having your mother's favorite, today."

That got Johnny moving. His father rarely mentioned his mother unprompted, and he wondered what could have led to this strange mood. "Really? It's my favorite too."

Gabriel nodded, turning back to look at Johnny. "I know."

* * *

After such a civil dinner, Johnny didn't feel like confronting the problem of the watch on his wrist. Thinking about it made him want to bang his head against the wall, and he didn't want to ruin his good mood. Still, he knew that he needed to confront it now; it'd be a disaster if an akuma attacked tomorrow and he couldn't be there to help out.

"Any ideas, Plagg?" he sighed out, flopping down on his bed. 

Plagg shrugged, yawning. "Maybe I'll think better if you give me some cheese."

Johnny sighed. "We can't use the camera looping trick anymore, Plagg, so you can't just eat like normal in here. They'll see the cheese disappearing in thin air and wonder what's up. You'll have to eat it under the bed, or in the bathroom."

"Fine by me," said Plagg, unbothered. "I just want cheese."

Johnny sighed. "Okay. I'll give you cheese, after you help me figure out what to do."

Plagg groaned and drifted over to gaze out the window. "I don't know what to do. This kind of technology didn't exist the last time I was out of the Miracle Box!"

"Well, you could at least try to help!" exclaimed Johnny frustratedly. "Okay, just answer my questions about the suit. If I transform into Chat, what will happen to the watch?"

"It's considered part of your clothing, so it'll disappear."

"Will it register to my father as being taken off?"

Plagg nodded. "Probably. But even if it didn't, the suit would magically block any tracking devices placed on it, to protect your identity. Which means your father would still be notified."

Johnny groaned, burying his face in his hands. "So what, I'll never be able to transform into Chat Noir again? Should I just give up the miraculous?" He couldn't imagine not being Chat Noir. He thinks he'd go crazy from the pent up energy; despite how big his room is, there are only so many times he can scale the rock wall, or play basketball with himself. He thinks about the feeling of the wind rushing through his hair as he runs across the rooftops, the solid weight of the baton in his hands as he spins it, the way he just knows, instinctively, how to balance his weight to vault himself up. He thinks about not being able to see Ladybug's smile in person, not being able to admire that side profile even if he knows he won't remember the line of it no matter how many times he traces it. He thinks about staying inside, powerless and safe in his gilded cage, as Hawkmoth continues to wreak havoc on Paris. 

Still, if he couldn't be Chat Noir, it'd be selfish of him to keep the ring. It'd be best for the safety of Paris if he gave it up, let someone else have it. Paris needed a Chat Noir, but that Chat Noir didn't have to be Johnny.

Plagg, sensing Johnny's line of thought, zoomed across the room to Johnny and landed on his shoulder. "Giving up your miraculous might be the only option, but it should be a last resort. You're not getting rid of me that easily. Why don't you call Ladybug first and see if he has any ideas?"

"I'd need to transform to call him, otherwise the magic won't disguise my voice."

"I'll talk to him, then," said Plagg, uncharacteristically serious. "I'll explain everything."

Johnny sighed, turning to look at the bright green eyes blinking solemnly at him. "Okay. Thanks, Plagg."

"Yeah, yeah, just cheer up already." Plagg groused, rolling his eyes. "At least this gives you an excuse to talk to your _ crush. _ "

Johnny cracked a smile at that. "Yeah, I guess so." He pulled out his phone, hesitantly typing out a text. "Does this sound good?"

Plagg nodded. "Yeah, it's good."

"Okay, sent," Johnny said, letting his arms flop back down onto the mattress. "And now we wait."

**best b**

**your favorite cat:** Hey LB, can we call ASAP? It's kind of an emergency. Something major just happened, and I might have to give up my miraculous.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahaha i felt particularly evil while writing this :P I don't think any of my previous chapters really ended on a cliffhanger since I don't like putting in cliffhangers for the sake of it lmao, but this one has kind of a cliffhanger?? how do yall think Ten will react?  
> since I finished this chapter earlier than expected I might be able to get another one out before classes start again next week, but we shall see...  
> also, the idea about the growing rats came from the school for good and evil, if any of you have read that series! i used to be obsessed with it, and i really liked anadil's connection to her rats. rats are insane, holy shit, i did a little googling on rats for this chapter and apparently they can swim up through your toilet!  
> anyways thank you all for reading, and i hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	7. ty triple threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir discuss how to proceed after finding out that Chat's location is going to be constantly monitored by his father.

Ten had actually been starting to feel okay about the failure of their plan until the text had come in from Chat. When he'd seen it, his heart had stopped, mind spinning in circles as he'd tried to come up with a reason why Chat would give up his miraculous. Why now, of all times? Was it because they'd failed? Or had something horrible happened to him? Ten couldn't imagine being Ladybug without Chat Noir by his side, and he was surprised at the force with which the thought terrified him.

"It'll be okay, Ten," said Tikki reassuringly, patting his head gently. Ten breathed in and out shakily, trying to calm down. "If he's giving up his miraculous, it's not going to be because of you. Just give him a call, and let him explain."

Ten nodded. "Okay. Spots on." He said, pressing the call button and sitting down on his bed. He watched the phone apprehensively as it rang; it only rang once before it was picked up.

"Ladybug!" came a scratchy voice.

"Plagg?" Ten exclaimed, feeling unsettled already. "Why are you here? Where's Chat?"

"Chat's here, don't worry," said Plagg. "But he can't transform right now."

"Why not?" Ten asked in alarm, brain already imagining what kind of scenarios could possibly lead Chat to not be able to transform.

"Calm down, I'm going to explain," Plagg drawled. 

Ten listened as Plagg explained the situation, his heart sinking further the longer the explanation went on. "We can't think of a way out of this," finished Plagg. "So unless you have some bright ideas, Chat might actually have to give up his miraculous."

Ten shook his head. "No, there has to be some way out of this. It's way too risky to introduce a new Chat Noir now. Hawkmoth would immediately see that we're vulnerable and pull out a huge attack."

"You could give the ring to an existing superhero, though, such as Triple Threat. Cataclysm is a fairly straightforward power, and Triple Threat already has a lot of experience superheroing."

Ten tried to imagine Taeyong in the black catsuit, but as much as he loved his best friend the image just didn't sit right with him. He shook his head. "No. What if we need the dragon miraculous at some point?"

"Someone else could wield it. Or Triple Threat could double wield."

"That's so risky, though! With how intense Hawkmoth is getting, I don't want to introduce new superheroes unless absolutely necessary."

He heard a frustrated groan in the background of the call, before his phone pinged with a text.

**your favorite cat**

**your favorite cat:** I think this definitely qualifies as absolutely necessary!!!

"I still think it's a bad idea," Ten shot back stubbornly. "Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to be equals. It wouldn't be equal at all if I had to work with someone inexperienced, and it could throw the whole balance out of whack. Even with someone from the rest of the team, it'd be... off. Hawkmoth could use this opportunity to get the best of us! And it'd be even more dangerous because I'd know their identity!"

"We could give the ring to Stinger, then," said Plagg. "He's been around almost as long as Triple Threat, and you don't know who he is. Chat and I have thought about this already."

"I don't talk to Stinger that much, though, what if it's awkward? Look, let's make sure we really don't have any other options before we go down this line of thought. You said your watch had a GPS tracker, right? What happens if you go to a basement and lose signal, like what happened with our miraculous tracker?"

That gave Plagg pause. "Huh. I don't know, we never tested it and I don't know how this stuff works."

**your favorite cat:** My dad gets notified every time the signal disappears!!

"He can't possibly get notified every time! No GPS is perfect. The tracker I put on the box lost signal sometimes, even when it was aboveground. He'd be totally spammed by alerts if he got one every time you lost signal."

"We could test it out," said Plagg. 

"Do it now and call me back when you find out," ordered Ten. "I don't want to hear any more talk of quitting until we figure out exactly how this works." He hung up at that, huffing as he flopped backwards onto the bed. His heart was beating quickly in his chest, and he flung his phone away from him with a groan; he didn't want to look at those texts anymore. Stupid cat! Ten knew that Chat loved being a superhero, that he thought being Chat was one of the best parts of his life. How could he talk of giving up so easily?

* * *

Johnny crept down to the basement, feeling strangely like an intruder in his own home. He never really went down here, especially not since his mother died. Back when she'd been alive, they used to host parties sometimes, and usually the kids would all hang out in the basement while the adults socialized in the fancy hall upstairs. But there weren't any parties anymore these days, and the furniture in the basement was all covered in a light layer of dust.

He pretended to be busy looking at the bookshelf in case someone came downstairs. He waited a few minutes like that, eyes scanning over the book titles again and again, until his phone finally rang with a call from Nathalie. "Johnny, where are you?" she asked harshly.

Johnny feigned confusion. "Uh, I'm in the basement. Why do you ask?"

Nathalie's voice softened back to neutral. "Oh. I see. There must not be any signal down there. This... complicates things." She sighed. "Could you come back upstairs, please?"

"Sure," Johnny said agreeably. He grabbed a random book off the shelf to use as an excuse, brushing the dust off the spine as he walked up the stairs.

Nathalie was waiting for him at the top of the staircase. "Since your watch doesn't seem to work underground, we need to set some more ground rules."

Johnny nodded, trying not to laugh at the sort-of pun. 

"Before you go into any underground area, you need to text me or your bodyguard that you expect your signal to disappear."

Johnny nodded. "What if it's an emergency, though? A lot of akuma safe zones are underground."

"As far as I'm aware, your school has no basement, and if you're at home you will have no need to hide underground. If you happen to be somewhere else, which won't be very often, then it can be excused."

Alright. A small victory, but he'd take it. "What about if the watch glitches for a couple seconds? Are you going to freak out on me every time?"

"Of course not," said Nathalie flatly. "The engineers who designed the alert system have thought of that. The system won't flag unless the signal has been missing for more than a minute. You will not have to worry about us being too overbearing." She sighed, looking at Johnny sympathetically. "We're really trying to interfere with your life as minimally as possible. As long as you let us know where you're going, there shouldn't be any issues. I know this all seems like a hassle, but your father is just trying to keep you safe. And he can't keep you safe unless he knows where you are."

Johnny sighed. "I know. But I'm already eighteen, I can keep myself safe!"

Nathalie gave him a small smile. "I know, Johnny. But just because you're eighteen doesn't mean you stop being your father's son. He cares about you, though he struggles to show it."

Johnny nodded. "I know... Thanks, Nathalie."

"Of course," she said. "You can go back to the basement now, if you'd like,"

"Nah, it's okay," he said. "I already got what I needed."

* * *

"See, what did I tell you?" exclaimed Ten. "This could still work!"

"Chat's shaking his head, and I agree with him here," announced Plagg into the receiver. "One minute isn't a lot to work with."

"It's enough to destroy the Lucky Charm, which is the most important part," Ten pointed out. His phone chimed with an answering text.

**your favorite cat**

**your favorite cat:** Ugh why are you so stubborn??? Hold on I'm sick of communicating through Plagg let me see if I can find some voice modulator app or something

Ten nodded, staying on the line as Chat downloaded an app. Soon, his voice came crackling over the call.

"Okay, does this sound good?" he asked. Ten couldn't help but burst out into laughter; his voice was high-pitched and nasally, coming out strangely flat. 

"Oh god, that's awful!" exclaimed Ten. "I can't take you seriously like that, holy shit. Change it to something else!"

"Is this better?" Chat asked, his voice now coming through low and gravelly. 

Ten laughed. "Now I just feel like I'm about to get interrogated, but I guess it'll do."

Chat chuckled, his laughter modulating weirdly through the phone. Ten wished he could hear it properly. "Okay. Anyways, as I was saying, even if I can transform for a minute to destroy the Lucky Charm, that still doesn't change the fact that you'll probably need me to Cataclysm something during a fight, and if that happens, I won't be able to help you."

"I could give you the horse miraculous," Ten suggested. "You could make a portal to where I tell you to and just stick your hand through."

"It seems risky, though," Chat countered. "I don't know if I could make portals that accurate. And what if it backfires? I'll be doing this from my house, which means that if anyone goes through the portal they'll see where I live and compromise my secret identity! I don't get why you're so resistant to the idea of another Chat Noir. The cat miraculouses' powers are easy to use, and Paris needs to have a Chat Noir. Since I can't be Chat Noir for more than a minute at a time, the only logical solution is that someone else becomes Chat Noir instead!"

"There can't be another Chat Noir!" Ten burst out angrily. "I— you're my partner, Chat! You're the only Chat Noir for me. I don't think I could keep being Ladybug without you. A replacement Chat Noir can't make up for the past three years we've spent together."

Chat was quiet for a moment, just a crackle of static as he let out a deep breath. "I couldn't do it without you too, bugaboo," he said softly. "But I'll still be here, even if there's another Chat Noir. I'm still just a phone call away."

"It's not the same," Ten insisted. "And besides, this whole tracker thing is temporary, right? I mean, it has to stop at some point, you're going to college next year and everything. Having a replacement Chat Noir might be even trickier then, because what if he won't want to give the miraculous back to you?"

Chat sighed. "I don't know if it'll ever stop. Going to college won't make me suddenly free; I'll still be my father's son. And sure, we could hold out against the akumas for a while without me, but there's no way we're defeating Hawkmoth and Mayura without a Chat Noir."

Ten frowned. "You don't know that. It'd be two of them against several of us."

"But do you want to take that risk? And until we defeat Hawkmoth, both of us will have to stay in Paris. You won't be able to go to New York for college. You won't be able to study abroad, or get a job outside of Paris. This is your whole future we're talking about!" Chat exclaimed.

Ten usually liked it when Chat was being reasonable, but he hated it now that it was directed against him. "I don't know! What I do know is that if we have a new Chat Noir, Hawkmoth will definitely see it as a weakness and double down on his attacks, if he hasn't already decided to do that because of the stunt we pulled with the fake miraculous. I'm already stressed enough about school and college applications! I think I'd die of exhaustion if Hawkmoth increased his attacks, and then I wouldn't even have a future!"

"Okay, fine!" Chat yelled back. "But even if we don't find a replacement, how would we explain my disappearance? Wouldn't Hawkmoth figure out that I'm missing and attack anyways?"

"We can tell the Ladyblog that you have important family business to attend to outside of Paris. Like, you have to take care of your sick grandma or something. So you're just taking a temporary leave, but you have the horse miraculous with you so you can teleport back and join the fight if we ever need you. And you'll still be able to break the Lucky Charms because I can just send them to you through the yoyo. I'll give Triple Threat full-time custody of the dragon miraculous, so that the two of us can protect Paris while you're away. We did it last year when you went on vacation, remember?"

"Yeah, but that was just for three weeks. This is for months, possibly longer!"

"It'll be fine!" Ten said, with much more confidence than he actually felt. "Worst case scenario, if we actually need you to join the fight, you could say that your signal died because your tracker broke while you were running from an akuma."

"I guess," conceded Chat, still unconvinced. "We have to put a time limit on this though. If we get to March and there's still no chance of me being free, we have to look for a new Chat Noir."

"Deal," said Ten immediately. He was just glad to reach an agreement; he hated arguing with Chat Noir, and it was even worse arguing with him in the uncanny, modulated voice that filtered through his phone speakers. It carried a familiar enunciation, a shape to the words that Ten could faintly recognize, but the timbre and pitch were totally different. It threw him off, since he couldn't get a read on what Chat was feeling.

"And also, if you find yourselves needing me more than once, we need to find a new Chat Noir. There's no way I can pretend to accidentally break the tracker several times."

"... Fine." Ten rolled over onto the other side of the bed and sighed. "But that's not going to happen. I'll make sure of it."

"I hope so." Chat sighed, his voice softening. "Don't be afraid to ask me for help, though. All this will be for nothing if Hawkmoth gets you."

Ten snorted. "I know. I'm not stupid, Chat."

"I know you're not. Just making sure, bugaboo."

They were quiet for a couple moments, only the sounds of breathing coming across the line. If he closed his eyes and lied down on the hardwood floor, Ten could almost imagine that they were on a rooftop somewhere, just staring at the sky and existing together.

"Well," Ten said reluctantly. "I should hurry up and get to Triple Threat, then, just in case another akuma attack comes tonight."

"Yeah," Chat said. "Tell him hi for me."

"I will," Ten promised. "Bug out!"

He ended the call and detransformed, lying there motionless for a few moments. "Well, what happened?" Tikki asked.

Ten sighed, pushing himself up off the bed. "Come on, Tikki. We have a delivery to make."

* * *

The next day at school, Taeyong walked in with the choker around his neck.

"Woah, Taeyong! Nice choker!" exclaimed Johnny. Ten mentally cursed at him for pointing it out; he was hoping it would stay inconspicuous, but unfortunately chokers were not the most inconspicuous accessory.

"It looks good on you, Taeyong," agreed Doyoung. "Where did you get it?"

Taeyong laughed awkwardly as he sat down next to Ten. "Uh, a friend gave it to me?"

Johnny and Doyoung nodded, accepting the explanation easily. "Cool!" exclaimed Johnny. "You know, it actually just occurred to me that I don't have a lot of chokers. Guess my father just never bothered to make any," he said with a shrug. "Could you ask your friend where they got it from?"

"Ooh, does it have the Johnny's Fashion Evaluation stamp of approval?" Ten asked teasingly, trying to save Taeyong from having to come up with another lie.

Johnny laughed. "Maybe, but you know I'm not allowed to promote any other brands on my channel."

Ten rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. I still think that rule is stupid."

Johnny shrugged. "It is what it is. Anyways, did you guys finish the physics homework?"

* * *

They got their first akuma attack the next day. Ten and Taeyong worked well together, both from the past few years of superheroing together and the past several years of being best friends. Fighting akumas with Taeyong was a bit like dancing with him, just with added elements of unpredictability and fear. It wasn't as easy as it was with Chat, since it was a little one-sided— Ten could read Taeyong pretty well, but Taeyong couldn't read Ladybug as well because he didn't know that Ladybug is actually Ten. Still, after a few initial hiccups, they were able to purify the akuma, releasing it into the air and watching it fly away.

He felt a strange lightness in his chest at the altercation going smoothly, but also a strange unease at Chat not being there, like he was unmoored and free-floating.

"Donghyuck!" He called, looking around for a familiar head of brown hair.

Donghyuck popped up from where he'd been hiding in a nearby store. "Ladybug! You called?" He jogged over, phone in his hand still recording. "Everyone, Ladybug just spoke to me!" he hissed at the camera, before turning it around to face Ten and beaming at him. "Any words for the Ladyblog today?"

"Actually, I do," said Ten, taking a deep breath. He looked over at Taeyong for reassurance, and Taeyong gave him a smile and a nod. He had no idea how the public would react to one of their beloved superheroes disappearing for an indefinite amount of time. "As you all probably noticed, Chat Noir wasn't here today. He's currently not in Paris because he had a family medical emergency, and he needs to be away for a while to take care of a family member. While he's gone, Triple Threat and I will be protecting Paris together for most akuma attacks. However, Chat has the horse miraculous with him, so he'll be able to teleport back here at any time to help us if we run into trouble, so don't worry too much! We promise we'll continue to keep the citizens of Paris safe. We've all been working together for years now, and even without Chat I'm sure we'll be able to defend Paris against Hawkmoth and Mayura," he paused at the end of his spiel to take a breath. "Okay, any questions?"

"How long will Chat be gone?" asked Donghyuck.

"We honestly don't know, but it'll probably be at least a few months," answered Ten as confidently as he could. He ignored the small part of him that whispered that Chat might be gone forever.

Donghyuck narrowed his eyes at Ten. "You don't sound very sure of that. Did you two have a fight and break up or something?"

"What, no!" Ten exclaimed vehemently, shaking his head. "No, Chat still is my partner, and he always will be. And he's still very much involved, even though he can't be here in person; after all, I have to send him the Lucky Charm for him to destroy it and reverse the damage. The both of us are still working to keep Paris safe as best we can; it's just that Chat's family circumstances are making it so that he has to take a step back for a while."

Donghyuck nodded. "Okay. So for now, it's going to be mostly you and Triple Threat? What about the other superheroes?"

"We'll call for them when we need them, as usual," said Ten. "Not much is changing other than the fact that Triple Threat will be full-time now instead of Chat Noir." Just then, a warning beep sounded from his ears, and a matching beep came from Taeyong's choker a moment after. "Sorry about that," he said with an apologetic smile. "But we need to go soon. Any last questions?"

Donghyuck shook his head. "Nope! But good luck with everything! Paris believes in you!" he called out with a grin.

Ten and Taeyong grinned back. "Thank you for believing in us," said Taeyong. "We'll make sure to protect Paris as best as we can!" With that, the two of them snuck away to a nearby alleyway so that Taeyong could detransform.

"You know, Donghyuck is really nice, even though he's always getting into trouble," mused Taeyong as he released his transformation. He reached up to unclasp the choker before he realized that he didn't need to. "Wait, I don't have to give this back, right?"

"No, you can keep it," responded Ten with a smile. "We did well out there. We make a pretty good team."

"Yeah?" Taeyong beamed. "I'm glad you think so. I thought we did pretty well, too."

A warning beep sounded from Ten's earrings again, and he groaned. "Ugh, I really wish I could stay and chat, but I have to get going. See you around?"

Taeyong nodded. "I'll see you at the next akuma attack then, I guess."

Ten laughed. "I guess you will. Well, bug out!"

* * *

One day, Doyoung pulled Ten aside before lunch to talk to him, face twisted into a frown.

"Is Taeyong dating someone?" asked Doyoung.

Ten shook his head. "No, why would you think that?"

Doyoung squinted at Ten, as if he didn't quite believe Ten's answer. "That choker he's been wearing. Who wears a choker from a friend every single day?"

Ten shrugged, and fought back the urge to laugh as he realized the misunderstanding. "Maybe he just likes it. It doesn't mean he's dating someone."

"Taeyong doesn't even wear the ring I gave him though," Doyoung lamented. "And like, a choker? Isn't that weirdly possessive or something? Like who platonically wears a choker from someone else every day?"

Ten laughed. When he put it like that, it did sound pretty weird, and Ten might've actually believed that Taeyong had a secret boyfriend if he didn't know exactly where that choker had come from. "Trust me, Doyoung, I know the friend who gave Taeyong that choker. There's definitely nothing between them. Maybe Taeyong just likes wearing chokers these days."

"... You're sure Taeyong isn't dating anyone?"

"Yes, I'm  _ very _ sure," Ten said, emphasizing the words. "He is definitely one hundred percent single, so if you want to ask him out, now or anytime before the end of the school year would be ideal!"

Doyoung's eyes went wide and he hissed out a "shh!", glancing around to see if anyone around them had heard their conversation. "I—"

"Just ask him out already!" Ten urged quietly. 

"He doesn't like me!"

"How do you know?" Ten replied. "You won't know until you ask! Just trust me," he said earnestly.

Doyoung searched Ten's face suspiciously. "It's unsettling when you're not being annoying. I don't know what to think."

Ten groaned. "I'm trying to help you here! Seriously, just give it a shot."

Doyoung seemed to consider this for a moment, before nodding. "Alright. Anyways, let's go eat. Taeyong and Johnny must be waiting for us."

Ten smiled. "Yeah, okay." As they walked over to the table where Johnny and Taeyong were chattering animatedly, he wondered how Johnny would react if Ten asked him out again. If he'd laugh it off like he did freshman year, when he thought Ten was joking. 

Ten was glad that Johnny had rejected him freshman year, because otherwise they wouldn't have become the friends that they were now, and he completely understood why Johnny did it— honestly, Ten had just been one in a crowd of many who were clamoring to flirt with Johnny back then. He was lucky that Johnny had just laughed it off. But even if Johnny had said yes, it probably wouldn't have gone anywhere anyways, not with the Seo brand and Johnny's father to consider. So for now, he was just happy that he got to have these moments with Johnny and the rest of their friends, laughing together at lunchtime and doodling on each other's notebooks during class. He was just happy to be able to see that smile up close, the real one and not the model one, and to hear the sound of his loud laughter echoing down the hallways.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder: if he asked Johnny out now, would he say yes? What would his father think, considering the fact that he's actually met Ten? 

Ten shook his head and shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. There was no point in worrying about hypotheticals. Right now, all he needed to focus on was this: the bright cafeteria lights, the smell of good food, and Johnny's bright grin in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy johnny day yall! semester is starting now and I need to get my shit together to figure out summer and internships and research and ahhhhhh so updates will probably be slow for a while after this. however don't worry, I have most of this story planned out so I will finish it eventually!  
> anyways I hope you guys liked this chapter :))) let me know what you guys think about Johnny having to stop being Chat for a while! hopefully next chapter we will get to explore a bit more of the taeten dynamic and how Ten copes in Chat's absence :D  
> anyways thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed! <3


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